Measuring Change in Attachment Insecurity Using Short Forms of the ECR-R: Longitudinal Measurement Invariance and Sensitivity to Treatment

Müller, Sascha; Spitzer, Carsten; Flemming, Eva; Ehrenthal, Johannes C.; Mestel, Robert; Strauß, Bernhard; Lübke, Laura

doi:10.1080/00223891.2023.2238816

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Positive correlations between attachment- related anxiety, avoidance and RFQ_U and negative correlations between the two dimensions of insecure attachment and RFQ_C (8-item version) have been reported [ 16 ]. This measure has demonstrated adequate psychometric properties and is often used to explore individual differences in attachment experiences [ 60 – 62 ]. In this study, Cronbach’s α was = .83 for anxiety, and = .80 for avoidance.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A short version of the reflective functioning questionnaire: Validation in a greek sample

Karagiannopoulou,

Milienos,

Desatnik

et al. 2024

PLoS ONE

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This study aims to validate the Greek version of the 54-item Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (RFQ), a measure designed to assess an individual’s capacity for understanding themselves and others based on internal mental states. This capacity, also known as Reflective Functioning (RF) or mentalizing, is believed to play a significant role in both typical and atypical development. The validation process examined the factor structure of the RFQ and its relationship with a variety of psychosocial and clinical constructs that have theoretical and empirical links to RF. Additionally, this research investigated the factor structure’s invariance across gender and age groups to determine the robustness of the instrument. A unique contribution of this work lies in examining the application of the RFQ to attachment classifications through the use of cluster analysis. The sample consisted of 875 Greek adults from the general community with a mean age of 28.5 and a median age of 22. Participants completed the Greek RFQ along with a series of self-report questionnaires assessing psychosocial constructs, including attachment, epistemic trust, emotion regulation, and psychological mindedness, as well as clinical variables such as anxiety, depression, and borderline personality traits. Our findings suggest that a shorter, 31-item version of the questionnaire provides a robust three-factor structure across a non-clinical Greek adult population. The three identified subscales are (a) excessive certainty, (b) interest/curiosity, and (c) uncertainty/confusion, all demonstrating satisfactory reliability and construct validity. The uncertainty subscale was found to be associated with insecure attachment styles, epistemic mistrust and credulity, emotional suppression, and low psychological mindedness. In contrast, the certainty and curiosity subscales were linked to secure attachment, epistemic trust, emotion reappraisal, and psychological mindedness. Uncertainty was further shown to differ significantly across probable clinical and non-clinical groups, as distinguished by cut-off scores for anxiety, depression, and borderline personality disorder (BPD). However, the certainty and interest/curiosity subscales only varied between the two BPD groups. Our results provide the first evidence supporting the use of a 31-item version of the RFQ with three validated subscales to reliably assess reflective functioning in the Greek population, demonstrating stronger psychometric properties compared to other RFQ versions reported in previous studies. Findings suggest that impaired mentalizing capacity, as measured by the RFQ, is linked to insecure attachment, epistemic mistrust and credulity, poor emotion regulation, and low psychological mindedness, and potentially plays a role in adult mental health symptoms.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A short version of the reflective functioning questionnaire: Validation in a greek sample

Karagiannopoulou,

Milienos,

Desatnik

et al. 2024

PLoS ONE

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The 10-Item Short Form of the German Experiences in Close Relationships Scale (ECR-G-10)—Model Fit, Reliability, and Validity

Neumann,

Rohmann,

Sattel

2023

Behavioral Sciences

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The aim of the present work was the development and validation of a short form of the Experiences in Close Relationship Scale (ECR) in German. Three studies were conducted. In study 1, the best items for the short form were selected from the item pool of the original version based on ant colony optimization (ACO), a recently developed probabilistic approach. Data from three samples collected at a university, an online portal, and a psychosomatic clinic with a total of 1470 participants were analyzed. A 10-item solution resulted, measuring avoidance and anxiety with five items each. This solution showed a good model fit and acceptable reliability in all three samples. The two new short scales were independent of each other. In study 2, the 10-item solution was validated by correlating the new short scales with external criteria. Data from previous studies that included student, community, and clinical samples were reanalyzed. Both short scales showed expected correlations with measures of romantic relationships, personality, psychopathology, and childhood trauma, indicating convergent and discriminant validity. The significant correlations were moderate to strong. In study 3, the selected ten items alone and several content-related scales were presented online to 277 participants, most of them students. The good results in terms of model fit, reliability, and validity observed in studies 1 and 2 could be replicated here. The new short form, called ECR-G-10, allows the measurement of attachment avoidance and anxiety in an economic way in research and clinical practice.

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Measuring Change in Attachment Insecurity Using Short Forms of the ECR-R: Longitudinal Measurement Invariance and Sensitivity to Treatment

Cited by 2 publications

References 83 publications

A short version of the reflective functioning questionnaire: Validation in a greek sample

A short version of the reflective functioning questionnaire: Validation in a greek sample

The 10-Item Short Form of the German Experiences in Close Relationships Scale (ECR-G-10)—Model Fit, Reliability, and Validity

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