Celebrating more than 26,000 adult attachment interviews : mapping the main adult attachment classifications on personal, social, and clinical status

Abstract

Since the development of the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) in 1985, more than 26,000 AAIs have been administered, coded, and reported, representing 170 (wo-)man-years of work. We used multinomial tests and analyses of correspondence to compare the AAI distributions in various cultural and age groups, in mothers, fathers, high-risk, and clinical samples with the combined samples of North American non-clinical, non-risk mothers (22% dismissing, 53% secure, 8% preoccupied, and 17% unresolved loss or other trauma). Males were more often classified as dismissing and less frequently classified as secure compared to females (except adoptive fathers), and females were more frequently classified as unresolved (but not more often preoccupied) compared to males. A combination of high scores on the unresolved and insecure-preoccupied dimensions was shared by borderline personality disorder, autism spectrum disorders, and gender dysphoria, while combined high scores on the unresolved and insecure-dismissing dimensions characterized anxiety problems, obsessive-compulsive and thought disorders.