Even though the anxious-depressed symptom levels in the two discordant groups (i.e., the low early care/high adult romantic quality group and the high early care/low adult romantic quality group) can be interpreted in light of existing theories (i.e., the violation of expectation hypothesis on the one hand, the buffering hypothesis on the other), it is difficult to reconcile them under a single framework. For example, according to the violation of expectations perspective, individuals who have positive early experiences should have experienced greater psychological distress (reflected in higher anxious-depressed symptoms) if their adult romantic experiences fail to meet their lofty standards for close relationships (Treboux et al., 2004).
