Development and validation of the Adult Attachment Trauma Questionnaire (AATQ)

Abstract

Despite the wide use of the concept of Attachment Trauma (AT) in clinics and research, there is a scarcity of proper assessment tools. This work aims to fill this gap by outlining the development and validation of the Adult Attachment Trauma Questionnaire (AATQ). The preliminary item pool covered eight conceptual domains: Conflict, Attachment-related Dissociation, Attachment Phobia, Victim, Compulsive Savior, Dangerous Self, Revengeful Perpetrator, and Sadistic Perpetrator. The items were analyzed through two pilot studies. After revising the items according to the results, the final pool underwent factorial, convergent, and incremental validity analyses in a general sample of 407 Italian adults. The EFA supported the eight-factor structure. Validity analyses demonstrated excellent convergent and predictive validity across all questionnaire subscales, except for two of them (Compulsive Savior, Sadistic Perpetrator) that did not exhibit good performance and were subsequently removed. The AATQ final version consisted of six subscales and 28 total items and was confirmed in a further EFA. The AATQ performed better than a popular fearful/disorganized attachment measure (Adult Disorganized Attachment scale) and a standard measure of adult attachment (Emotions in Close Relationships) in predicting traumatic and pathological outcomes.