Characteristics of severe life events, attachment style, and depression – Using a new online approach

Abstract

Objectives. Severe life events are established as provoking agents for depression in combination with vulnerability factors. Identifying features of severe events improves the prediction of disorder but are rarely utilized, mainly because life event research is increasingly dominated by self-report checklists with no capacity for inferring such characteristics. This paper investigates the association of severe life events' features with depression and insecure attachment styles using a new online measure of life events in a clinical and control sample. Methods.A total of 202 participants (75 clinical and 127 matched control participants), taken from an earlier national Depression Case Control genetic study and followed up after 12 years, completed the Computerised Life Events Assessment Record to assess characteristics of life events, the Vulnerable Attachment Style Questionnaire to measure attachment insecurity, and the General Health Questionnaire to measure depression.Results. The clinical group had higher self-reported depression, severe life events, and insecure attachment style. They also reported more loss, danger, humiliation, and trauma severe events. Intra-respondent analysis showed individuals experiencing these types of events were more likely to report depression. Insecure attachment style and severe life events were both significantly related to recent depression and history of depressive disorder. Anxious attachment style was significantly related to relationship events and bereavements, as well as severe loss or humiliation events, whereas avoidant style was not.Conclusions. Identifying salient features of severe life events improves associations with depression and insecure attachment style. Utilizing a new online approach can aid research and clinical approaches for depression at low cost.

A contextual approach to trauma experience: lessons from life events research

“…A new online approach – Computerised Life Events Assessment Record CLEAR – mimics aspects of the interview ratings with good reliability and validity and is able to provide ratings of the threat as well as the further characteristics in a large number of event categories (Bifulco et al ., 2019). The overlap of trauma and other severe events and their characteristics have been investigated with some success in relation to depression (Bifulco et al ., under review). Whilst these scores constitute reported rather than investigator-coded characteristics of events, aids to rating online through written and video instruction, and detailed labelling of rating points with examples potentially objectifies ratings.…”

Associations between negative life events and anxiety, depressive, and stress symptoms: A cross-sectional study among Chinese male senior college students

“…Se entiende por evento vital negativo cualquier experiencia personal percibida por la como altamente amenazante o perjudicial, de manera que le demanda un reajuste sustancial de su vida y comportamiento. Algunos ejemplos de éstos serían la muerte de alguien cercano, la ruptura de cualquier relación significativa, o la pérdida de un empleo , es decir, se refiere a la percepción de una pérdida como importante por sus implicaciones a nivel emocional, cognitivo y/o conductual (Jin, Sun, & Wang, 2018;Zou et al 2018), lo cual puede ser agravado cuando se tiene un estilo de apego inseguro (Bifulco, Kagan, & Spence, 2019).…”

Frustration Tolerance and Personality Traits in Patients With Substance Use Disorders

“…One crucial limitation is that we did not assess attachment styles in any of our samples, although our results can be interpreted to draw some preliminary conclusions and inspire future research. First of all, previous results show the relationship between a disorganized attachment and a higher probability of suffering anxiety (86), depression (87), addiction (88), or PTSD (89), and expressing personality disorders such as borderline, avoidant, or antisocial, among others (90). In turn, recent research has shown an association between insecure attachment, alcohol/substance addiction, and an increased amount of borderline personality organization (57).…”