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Psychometric Evaluation of the Adolescent Attachment Anxiety and Avoidance Inventory with High-Risk Youth

Wed, April 7, 4:30 to 5:30pm EDT (4:30 to 5:30pm EDT), Virtual

Abstract

Background: Adolescence is a time of rapid development and is a key period for the establishment of long-term healthy relationships (Masten et al., 2004). The quality of the parent-adolescent attachment relationship plays a critical role in influencing the youth’s development, relationships, and wellbeing across the lifespan (Bartholomew, 1993). However, there a few well-validated measures of adolescent attachment that include self- and parent-report. The Adolescent Attachment Anxiety and Avoidance Inventory (AAAAI) was created to fill this gap. The AAAAI is a 36 item self-report measure of adolescent-parent attachment adapted from Brennan et al.’s (1998) Experiences in Close Relationships scale to assess attachment avoidance and attachment anxiety dimensions in parent-adolescent relationships. Past research on the full AAAAI demonstrates good reliability, convergent and discriminant validity (Steiger & Moretti, 2005). The purpose of the current study was to assess and validate the parent and youth report 16-item short-form AAAAI in a large clinical sample.

Method: Participants included parents (n = 814; 86.1% biological; 74.1% mothers; Mage = 43.86, SD = 8.13) and their youth (n = 608; 56.6% female; Mage = 13.98, SD = 2.36). To examine factor structure, we conducted exploratory factor analyses. We report Cronbach’s alpha of established scales. Finally, construct validity was examined using psychopathology (BCFPI; Cunningham et al., 2000), affect regulation (ARC; Moretti, 2003), parenting (APQ Short Form; Elgar et al., 2007), and maltreatment (CTS-2; Straus et al., 1996) measures.

Results: Fit indices from factors analyses indicated an optimal two-factor solution for both parent- (χ2(89) = 411.87, p < .001, CFI = .91, AIC = 31125.91, RMSEA = .08, 90% CI [.07, .09]) and youth self-report (χ2(89) = 464.46, p < .001, CFI = .92, AIC = 33691.78, RMSEA = .08, 90% CI [.08, .09]) representing attachment anxiety (α = .84, .83, respectively) and attachment avoidance (α = .91, .90). The youth report item 12 “I want to get close to my parent, but I keep pulling back” loaded onto attachment anxiety, however it loaded onto attachment avoidance for parents. Both parent and youth report of attachment anxiety and avoidance were positively correlated with all psychopathology with the exception of attachment avoidance and separation anxiety, which were negatively correlated (Table 1). Attachment avoidance was more strongly correlated with positive parenting and poor monitoring compared to attachment anxiety, whereas attachment anxiety was more strongly correlated with inconsistent discipline. Both attachment anxiety and avoidance were associated with physical and psychological maltreatment.

Conclusion: Factor analysis supported the two-factor structure of the 16-item AAAAI for both youth and parent report. However, we found informant discrepancies with one item loading onto different factors for parent and youth. AAAAI subscales were associated with indicators of psychopathology, parenting, and maltreatment. Thus, the present research finds support for the validity of the AAAAI, suggesting this measure may be a sound and robust way to measure attachment. With further research, this measure may be used to aid researchers and clinicians in supporting healthy adolescent development.

Group Authors

Adolescent Health Lab University Student Research Award Group (in alphabetical order): Sherene Balanji, Stephanie G. Craig, Brooke Davis, Natalie Goulter, Tim James, Cassia L. McIntyre, Marlene M. Moretti, Erica R. Smith, Emily M. Thornton

Authors