The Childhood Experiences of Disorganization and Role Reversal Scale: Relations with Childhood Adversity, Internalizing Problems, and Well-Being in Young Adulthood

Abstract

During the transition from infancy to preschool years, children develop controlling-caregiving and controlling-punitive attachments, in addition to continuing to show disorganized behaviors, as part of a larger disorganized attachment spectrum. Despite advances in understanding disorganization in young adulthood, little is known about the controlling patterns and their relations to psychological health. This is likely due to a scarcity of well-validated and cost-effective measures assessing all three disorganized patterns in young adulthood. The Childhood Disorganization and Role Reversal Scale (CDRR) addresses this need by assessing dimensions of disorganization and role reversal, such as hostility, child affective caregiving, and child punitiveness, in addition to appropriate parent–child boundaries. Since the CDRR is a recent measure, this study aimed to further validate it by (a) evaluating whether its factor structure replicates in a university student sample (N = 286, M(SD) = 19.3(1.6); 74.48% female) and (b) assessing its construct validity through associations with conceptually relevant constructs such as childhood adversity, internalizing problems (depression and anxiety), and subjective well-being (happiness, life satisfaction, and meaning in life). Confirmatory factor analyses provided evidence for the original four-factor structure CDRR with mothers (Disorganized/Punitive, Affective Caregiving, Mutual Hostility, Appropriate Boundaries) and fathers (Disorganized, Affective Caregiving, Punitive, Appropriate Boundaries). Associations with childhood adversity, internalizing problems, and subjective well-being were in the expected directions. Overall, the results provide additional evidence for the validity of the CDRR and the importance of evaluating disorganized and controlling attachments in young adulthood.