Attachment Anxiety, Avoidance, and Disorganization: Latent Profiles of Attachment and Their Associations With Hypomentalization, Depressive Symptoms, and Suicidality

Abstract

Objectives

Disorganized attachment is an important concept in contemporary attachment theory, where it plays a significant role in understanding vulnerability to distress and psychopathology. Although latent class analysis of attachment has been conducted several times, disorganization has not been included in them as a dimension of attachment alongside anxiety and avoidance. The study aimed to: identify latent profiles of attachment, including attachment disorganization; and examine differences between attachment profiles in levels of mentalization difficulties, depressive symptoms and suicidality.

Methods

Polish adults (N = 498) completed two scales measuring adult attachment (a shortened version of the Experiences in Close Relationships-Revised and the Adult Disorganized Attachment Scale) and the measures of hypomentalization, depressive symptoms, and suicidality.

Results

Factor analysis of attachment scales revealed three factors: anxiety, avoidance, and disorganization. Latent Profile Analysis identified four attachment profiles: “generalized insecure” (high anxiety, avoidance, and disorganization; 7.8% of the sample); “secure” (low attachment factors scores; 53.6%); “anxious with disorganized features” (high anxiety, moderate disorganization, low avoidance; 28.1%); and “avoidant” (high avoidance, low anxiety, low disorganization; 10.4%). Generalized insecure and anxious profiles had higher levels of hypomentalization compared to secure and avoidant profiles. Generalized insecure profile had higher levels of depressive symptoms than all other groups and a higher level of suicidality than the secure group. The secure group reported lower depression and suicidality than the anxious group, which in turn had higher suicidality than the avoidant group.

Conclusion

Our results seem to be a step towards integrating dimensional and categorical, as well as personality-social and developmental-clinical approaches in research on attachment in adulthood. The study underscores the significance of more thoroughly integrating disorganized attachment into the broader framework of attachment research, emphasizing its implications for the comprehension and perhaps also the treatment of psychopathology.