Disorganized attachment in emerging adulthood: Measurement comparisons and relations to childhood maltreatment and emotion dysregulation

Abstract

AbstractThere is an abundance of research examining disorganized attachment in childhood. However, few researchers have worked to advance the study of disorganized attachment in the context of emerging adult romantic relationships. As such, consistent and clear measurement of this attachment dimension is lacking. In the current study, emerging adult college students (N = 318) completed two previously designed self‐report measures for assessing adult disorganized attachment in the context of romantic relationships. The two scales were compared in a factor analytic framework to create a single cohesive measure of romantic disorganized attachment, which captures the unique features of disorganized attachment, including fear, distrust and suspicion of attachment figures, as well as odd and disoriented behaviors. The result was a 15‐item measure, which showed good reliability and factorial validity, and was moderately related to existing measures of attachment anxiety and avoidance. Additionally, the new measure demonstrated good test–retest reliability in a follow‐up (n = 52). Finally, path analysis was used to provide evidence that disorganized attachment mediates the relation of childhood maltreatment to difficulties in emotion regulation, above what is captured by anxious and avoidant attachment. The current findings suggest the revised measure is a reliable self‐report measure of disorganized adult romantic attachment to be used to further the study of disorganized attachment in emerging adulthood.