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      Attachment Style, Early Childhood Trauma, Alexithymia, and Dissociation Among Persons Addicted to Alcohol: Structural Equation Model of Dependencies

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          Abstract

          Aim

          Attachment theory is a broadly used paradigm for understanding human affective development. It is recognized that alexithymia is a key factor responsible for the non-adaptive strategies of regulating emotions in people addicted to alcohol. In addition, an important role is attributed to early childhood trauma and dissociation. The theoretical model was examined, in which connections between attachment styles, trauma, and alexithymia and dissociation were investigated in persons addicted to alcohol.

          Methods

          The total number of study participants amounted to 268 persons, including 116 women (43% of all subjects) and 152 men (57% of all subjects) at the age of 18–73 ( M = 39.19; SD = 13.45). In order to measure the analyzed variables, the following questionnaires were applied: Michigan alcoholism screening test (MAST), attachment styles questionnaire (ASQ), 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), traumatic experiences checklist (TEC), and curious experiences survey (CES).

          Results

          A comparative analysis between the group of alcohol addicts and non-addicts showed statistically significant differences related to attachment style, intensity of trauma, alexithymia, and dissociation. With structural equation models (i.e., AMOS and GLS), the adjustment of theoretical model to data was examined, which allowed the description of dependency paths. As a result of the conducted analysis of paths, it was found out that the model was accurately fitted to data, but only when an impact path related to a direct connection between an attachment style and an addiction was deleted. This impact is indirect, and from one side, it results from affective and cognitive deficits, i.e., alexithymia, and on the other side, from the intensity of traumatic experiences. No direct impact of dissociation on the development of an inclination to addiction was found, if contextual variables, i.e., alexithymia and trauma, are taken into account. The strongest direct relation was proven in the case of the anxious-ambivalent attachment style and alexithymia (β = 0.389; p < 0.01) and avoidant attachment style and alexithymia (β = 0.497; p < 0.01), which turned out a strong predictor fostering the development of alexithymia and the occurrence of traumas related to emotional negligence and mental violence and finally addiction.

          Conclusion

          Our studies revealed how important it is to investigate the role of individual variables in the context of developmental models. An extremely important element of the scientific achievement presented here is showing pillars of trauma, alexithymia, and dissociation in their cumulative impact on the development of emotional disorders resulting in addiction.

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          • Record: found
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          The Michigan alcoholism screening test: the quest for a new diagnostic instrument.

          M L Selzer (1971)
          Article 0 comments Cited 372 times – based on 0 reviews     Review now
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            The psychometric characteristics of the traumatic experiences checklist (TEC): first findings among psychiatric outpatients

            Karlien Kruger, Onno van der Hart, Ellert R. S. Nijenhuis (2002)
            Article 0 comments Cited 87 times – based on 0 reviews     Review now
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              The alexithymia construct. A potential paradigm for psychosomatic medicine.

              R. Michael Bagby, Karen J. Parker, G. Taylor (1990)
              During the past decade, the alexithymia construct has undergone theoretical refinement and empirical testing and has evolved into a potential new paradigm for understanding the influence of emotions and personality on physical illness and health. Like the traditional psychosomatic medicine paradigm, the alexithymia construct links susceptibility to disease with prolonged states of emotional arousal. But whereas the traditional paradigm emphasizes intrapsychic conflicts that are presumed to generate such emotional states, the alexithymia construct focuses attention on deficits in the cognitive processing of emotions, which remain undifferentiated and poorly regulated. This paper reviews the development and validation of the construct and discusses its clinical implications for psychosomatic medicine.
              Article 0 comments Cited 64 times – based on 0 reviews     Review now
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Elżbieta Zdankiewicz-Ścigała: URI : http://loop.frontiersin.org/people/566460/overview
                Dawid Konrad Ścigała: URI : http://loop.frontiersin.org/people/565999/overview
                Journal
                Journal ID (nlm-ta): Front Psychol
                Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Front Psychol
                Journal ID (publisher-id): Front. Psychol.
                Title: Frontiers in Psychology
                Publisher: Frontiers Media S.A.
                ISSN (Electronic): 1664-1078
                Publication date (Electronic): 24 January 2020
                Publication date Collection: 2019
                Volume: 10
                Electronic Location Identifier: 2957
                Affiliations
                [1] 1Faculty of Psychology, SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities , Warsaw, Poland
                [2] 2Institute of Psychology, Faculty of Applied Social Sciences, The Maria Grzegorzewska University , Warsaw, Poland
                Author notes

                Edited by: Lorys Castelli, University of Turin, Italy

                Reviewed by: Luca Rollè, University of Turin, Italy; Deena Marie Walker, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, United States

                *Correspondence: Elżbieta Zdankiewicz-Ścigała, ezdankiewicz-scigala@ 123456swps.edu.pl

                †ORCID: Elżbieta Zdankiewicz-Ścigała orcid.org/0000-0002-8275-2585 Dawid Konrad Ścigała orcid.org/0000-0003-1409-5218

                This article was submitted to Psychology for Clinical Settings, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology

                Article
                DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02957
                PMC ID: 6993624
                PubMed ID: 32038366
                SO-VID: 95eac108-51b2-4fdc-a0e0-ca1c64cd3f21
                Copyright © Copyright © 2020 Zdankiewicz-Ścigała and Ścigała.
                License:

                This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

                History
                Date received : 03 September 2019
                Date accepted : 13 December 2019
                Page count
                Figures: 5, Tables: 7, Equations: 0, References: 68, Pages: 13, Words: 0
                Categories
                Subject: Psychology
                Subject: Original Research

                ScienceOpen disciplines: Clinical Psychology & Psychiatry
                Keywords: attachment style,trauma,alexithymia,dissociation,addiction
                Data availability:
                ScienceOpen disciplines: Clinical Psychology & Psychiatry
                Keywords: attachment style, trauma, alexithymia, dissociation, addiction

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