title: Personality disorders and adult attachment dimensions in a mixed psychiatric sample: a multivariate study.
abstract: The associations between personality disorders and adult attachment dimensions were assessed in a sample of 487 consecutively admitted psychiatric subjects. Canonical correlation analysis showed that two sets of moderately correlated canonical variates explained the correlations between personality disorders and adult attachment patterns. The first and second attachment variates closely resembled the avoidance and anxiety attachment dimensions, respectively. The first personality disorder variate was mainly characterized by avoidant, depressive, paranoid, and schizotypal personality disorders, whereas dependent, histrionic, and borderline personality disorders loaded on the second canonical variate. However, these linear combinations of personality disorders were different from those obtained from principal component analysis. The results extend previous studies linking personality disorders and attachment patterns and suggest the importance of focusing on specific constellations of symptoms associated with dimensions of insecurity.
authors.affiliation: Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milano, Italy.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fossati
authors.forename: Judith A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Feeney
authors.forename: Deborah
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Donati
authors.forename: Michela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Donini
authors.forename: Liliana
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Novella
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bagnato
authors.forename: Ilaria
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Carretta
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Leonardi
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mirabelli
authors.forename: Cesare
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Maffei
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006677:Histrionic Personality Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D008960:Models, Psychological; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009769:Object Attachment; D010260:Paranoid Personality Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / Q000706:statistics & numerical data