Personality disorders and adult attachment dimensions in a mixed psychiatric sample: a multivariate study.
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.
Fossati
Andrea
A
Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milano, Italy.
Feeney
Judith A
JA
Donati
Deborah
D
Donini
Michela
M
Novella
Liliana
L
Bagnato
Maria
M
Carretta
Ilaria
I
Leonardi
Barbara
B
Mirabelli
Sara
S
Maffei
Cesare
C
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