The relation of dissociation and mind wandering to unresolved/disorganized attachment: an experience sampling study
Abstract
Individuals with unresolved/disorganized representations of childhood trauma (U/d attachment) report more psychological distress than others, but little is known about their everyday mentation. In the present study adults with childhood trauma (N = 45) completed the Berkeley-Leiden Adult Attachment Questionnaire-Unresolved (BLAAQ-U) and the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI), and reported everyday mentation during 5 days of experience sampling. The BLAAQ-U and the AAI showed a medium association with each other, but only the former significantly predicted negative affect, dissociation, and low control/awareness of mentation. Contrary to our predictions, U/d attachment did not significantly predict mind wandering, but the BLAAQ-U predicted endorsements of a negative mind wandering style. U/d attachment, as assessed by both instruments, was associated with the Poor attentional control style and beliefs in anomalous mental phenomena. Experience sampling is a valuable way to investigate everyday experiences in individuals with U/d attachment.
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Attachment disorganization and emotion dysregulation both have been shown to be related to pathological dissociation.
“Attachment disorganization [15, 115, 119] and emotion dysregulation [68, 69, 119, 188] both have been shown to be related to pathological dissociation.”
From Complex PTSD and borderline personality disorder (2021) · cites this paper as [115]
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Complex PTSD and borderline personality disorder
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“Attachment disorganization [15, 115, 119] and emotion dysregulation [68, 69, 119, 188] both have been shown to be related to pathological dissociation.”
Background
- Authors
- Marcusson-Clavertz, D., Gušić, S., Bengtsson, H., Jacobsen, H., & Cardeña, E.
- Affiliations
- Center for Research on Consciousness and Anomalous Psychology (CERCAP), Department of Psychology, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
- Lund University (SE)
- Center for Child and Adolescent Mental Health, Eastern and Southern Norway (NO)
- Venue
- Attachment & Human Development
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2016-12-05
- Volume
- 19
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 170-190
- ISSN
- 1461-6734 (ISSN-L)
- 1469-2988
- OpenAlex
- W2560709289
- Cited by
- 19
- References
- 58
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 1 · 2017: 2
- FWCI
- 1.34
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Attachment & Human Development (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Lund University Publications (Lund University) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Swedish Society for Clinical Hypnosis (-)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychoanalysis and Psychopathology Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Attachment and Relationship Dynamics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments
- Keywords
- childhood trauma, dissociation, mind wandering, negative affect, attentional control, Adult Attachment Interview
- MeSH terms
- Adult Survivors of Child Adverse Events, Ecological Momentary Assessment, Adult, Cross-Sectional Studies, Fantasy, Female, Humans, Interview, Psychological, Object Attachment, Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic, Sweden, Reactive Attachment Disorder
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