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Discriminant validity of the adult attachment interview.
Child Dev. 1996 Oct; 67(5):2584-99.CD

Abstract

The Adult Attachment Interview is a semi-structured interview developed to investigate adults' attachment representations. Subjects are asked to describe their parents as caregivers, explain these descriptions, describe how their parents typically responded to distress, and discuss their current relationships with their parents. They are also asked to describe any significant losses and/or instances of abuse during childhood. Scoring focuses on the accessibility of early experiences to memory and the coherence and plausibility of the subject's narrative. Discriminant validity is always an important issue with such measures because IQ and other cognitively loaded variables offer plausible alternative interpretations or represent important correlates that should be treated as covariates when the measure is used. In addition, complex, multifaceted interviews always pose the risk of assessing general social adjustment rather than a more narrowly defined construct. This study examines the discriminant validity of the AAI vis(-)à-vis intelligence, social desirability, discourse style, and general social adjustment in a sample of 53 native-English-speaking, married women with preschool children. They were assessed with the AAI, a written IQ test, the Social Adjustment Scale, the Employment Experience Interview (discourse style), and a measure of social desirability. There were modest but significant correlations with IQ scores and social adjustment. There was no relation between AAI classifications and discourse style or social desirability. These results substantially strengthen the case for interpreting the AAI as an attachment-related measure.

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Authors+Show Affiliations

Crowell JA
Department of Psychology, SUNY-Stony Brook 11794-2500, USA.
Waters E
No affiliation info available
Treboux D
No affiliation info available
O'Connor EO
No affiliation info available
Colon-Downs C
No affiliation info available
Feider O
No affiliation info available
Golby B
No affiliation info available
Posada
No affiliation info available

MeSH

AdultFemaleHumansIntelligenceMaleMothersObject AttachmentParent-Child RelationsParentingPersonality AssessmentPsychometricsReproducibility of ResultsSocial Adjustment

Pub Type(s)

Journal Article
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

Language

eng

PubMed ID

9022258

Citation

Crowell, J A., et al. "Discriminant Validity of the Adult Attachment Interview." Child Development, vol. 67, no. 5, 1996, pp. 2584-99.
Crowell JA, Waters E, Treboux D, et al. Discriminant validity of the adult attachment interview. Child Dev. 1996;67(5):2584-99.
Crowell, J. A., Waters, E., Treboux, D., O'Connor, E. O., Colon-Downs, C., Feider, O., Golby, B., & Posada, . (1996). Discriminant validity of the adult attachment interview. Child Development, 67(5), 2584-99.
Crowell JA, et al. Discriminant Validity of the Adult Attachment Interview. Child Dev. 1996;67(5):2584-99. PubMed PMID: 9022258.
* Article titles in AMA citation format should be in sentence-case
TY - JOUR T1 - Discriminant validity of the adult attachment interview. AU - Crowell,J A, AU - Waters,E, AU - Treboux,D, AU - O'Connor,E O, AU - Colon-Downs,C, AU - Feider,O, AU - Golby,B, AU - Posada,, PY - 1996/10/1/pubmed PY - 1996/10/1/medline PY - 1996/10/1/entrez SP - 2584 EP - 99 JF - Child development JO - Child Dev VL - 67 IS - 5 N2 - The Adult Attachment Interview is a semi-structured interview developed to investigate adults' attachment representations. Subjects are asked to describe their parents as caregivers, explain these descriptions, describe how their parents typically responded to distress, and discuss their current relationships with their parents. They are also asked to describe any significant losses and/or instances of abuse during childhood. Scoring focuses on the accessibility of early experiences to memory and the coherence and plausibility of the subject's narrative. Discriminant validity is always an important issue with such measures because IQ and other cognitively loaded variables offer plausible alternative interpretations or represent important correlates that should be treated as covariates when the measure is used. In addition, complex, multifaceted interviews always pose the risk of assessing general social adjustment rather than a more narrowly defined construct. This study examines the discriminant validity of the AAI vis(-)à-vis intelligence, social desirability, discourse style, and general social adjustment in a sample of 53 native-English-speaking, married women with preschool children. They were assessed with the AAI, a written IQ test, the Social Adjustment Scale, the Employment Experience Interview (discourse style), and a measure of social desirability. There were modest but significant correlations with IQ scores and social adjustment. There was no relation between AAI classifications and discourse style or social desirability. These results substantially strengthen the case for interpreting the AAI as an attachment-related measure. SN - 0009-3920 UR - https://www.unboundmedicine.com/medline/citation/9022258/Discriminant_validity_of_the_adult_attachment_interview_ L2 - https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/resolve/openurl?genre=article&sid=nlm:pubmed&issn=0009-3920&date=1996&volume=67&issue=5&spage=2584 DB - PRIME DP - Unbound Medicine ER -