Attachment styles, earlier interpersonal relationships and schizotypy in a non-clinical sample

This paper investigates associations between adult attachment style, relationships with significant others during childhood, traumatic life-events and schizotypy.

Relationships between attachment and hypothesized correlates were investigated in a cross-sectional design using an analogue sample. The reliability of the attachment and trauma measures was investigated using a test-retest design.

Three hundred and four students completed the self-report version of the Psychosis Attachment Measure (PAM), maternal and paternal versions of the Parental Bonding Instrument, the Attachment History Questionnaire, a measure of trauma and the Oxford-Liverpool Inventory of Feelings and Experiences scale through an internet website.

As predicted, there were statistically significant associations between insecure attachment in adult relationships and experiences of negative interpersonal events. Both earlier interpersonal experiences and adult attachment style predicted schizotypy, and adult attachment style emerged as an independent predictor of positive schizotypal characteristics.

The findings support associations between adult attachment style and previous interpersonal experiences and between adult attachment and schizotypy. The PAM is a reliable and valid instrument that can be used to explore attachment styles in analogue samples and associations between attachment styles and psychotic symptoms in clinical samples.