Attachment theory and research are drawn upon in many applied settings, including family courts, but misunderstandings are widespread and sometimes result in misapplications. The aim of this consensus statement is, therefore, to enhance understanding, counter misinformation, and steer family-court utilisation of attachment theory in a supportive, evidence-based direction, especially with regard to child protection and child custody decision-making. The article is divided into two parts. In the first, we address problems related to the use of attachment theory and research in family courts, and discuss reasons for these problems. To this end, we examine family court applications of attachment theory in the current context of the best-interest-of-the-child standard, discuss misunderstandings regarding attachment theory, and identify fac

Bowlby proposed that the individual's social experiences, as early as in infancy, contribute to the construction of Internal Working Models (IWMs) of attachment, which will later guide the individual's expectations and behaviors in close relationships all along his or her life. The qualitative, individual characteristics of these models reflect the specificity of the individual's early experiences with attachment figures. The attachment literature globally shows that the qualities of IWMs are neither gender specific nor cultural specific. Procedures to evaluate IWMs in adulthood have been well established, based on narrative accounts of childhood experiences. Narrative procedures at earlier ages (e.g., in the preschool years) have been proposed, such as Bretherton's Attachment Story Completion Task (ASCT), to evaluate attachment representations. More than 500 ASCT narratives of preschoolers, coming from five different countries, have been collected, in the perspective of examining possible interactions between gender and culture regarding attachment representations. A specific Q-Sort coding procedure (CCH) has been used to evaluate several dimensions of the narratives. Girls' narratives appeared as systematically more secure than those of same-age boys, whatever their culture. The magnitude of gender differences, however, varied between countries. Taylor's model of gender-specific responses to stress and Harwood's and Posada's hypothesis on inter-cultural differences regarding caregiving are evoked to understand the differences across gender and countries.

There is hardly any cross-cultural research on the measurement invariance of the Brief Multidimensional Students' Life Satisfaction Scales (BMSLSS). The current article evaluates the measurement invariance of the BMSLSS across cultural contexts. This cross-sectional study sampled 7,739 adolescents and emerging adults in 23 countries. A multi-group confirmatory factor analysis showed a good fit of configural and partial measurement weights invariance models, indicating similar patterns and strengths in factor loading for both adolescents and emerging adults across various countries. We found insufficient evidence for scalar invariance in both the adolescents' and the emerging adults' samples. A multi-level confirmatory factor analysis indicated configural invariance of the structure at country and individual level. Internal consistency, evaluated by alpha and omega coefficients per country, yielded acceptable results. The translated BMSLSS across different cultural contexts presents good psychometric characteristics similar to what has been reported in the original scale, though scalar invariance remains problematic. Our results indicate that the BMSLSS forms a brief measure of life satisfaction, which has accrued substantial evidence of construct validity, thus suitable for use in cross-cultural surveys with adolescents and emerging adults, although evaluation of degree of invariance must be carried out to ensure its suitability for mean comparisons.

ResumenEl objetivo de esta investigación fue analizar la validez de criterio del cuestionario de apego romántico Experiences in Close Relationships (ECR, Brennan, Clark y Shaver, 1998) para la población chilena de adultos. Este cuestionario evalúa las dos dimensiones del apego romántico adulto: la evitación (de la intimidad) y la ansiedad (acerca de las relaciones). Los participantes fueron 549 adultos, quienes completaron el cuestionario ECR y el cuestionario de apego adulto CaMir. Se evaluó las propiedades psicométricas del cuestionario, mostrando que es un instrumento con una adecuada validez de criterio y con una estructura factorial que representa las dos dimensiones teóricas propuestas por los autores originales. Se concluye que la versión chilena del ECR es válida para examinar el apego romántico en la adultez. Palabras clave: apego romántico, apego adulto, validación de instrumento, validez de constructo. AbstractThe aim of this study was to analyze the criterion validity of the Chilean version of the Experiences in Close Relationships (ECR; Brennan, Clark y Shaver 1998) questionnaire in a sample of Chilean adults. This self-report questionnaire assesses two dimensions of romantic attachment: avoidance (of intimacy) and anxiety (about relationships). 549 Chilean adults completed the ECR and the Chilean version of the adult attachment questionnaire CaMir. Data analyses evaluated psychometric properties of the Chilean ECR, and showed adequate evidence of reliability, criterion validity, and a bifactorial structure similar to the original instrument. We can conclude that the Chilean version of the ECR is a reliable and valid measure to assess the romantic attachment in this population.

Several studies have reported the factor structure of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The results show models with different number of factors, high correlations between factors, and symptoms that belong to different factors in different models without affecting the fit index. These elements could suppose the existence of considerable item cross-loading, the overlap of different factors or even the presence of a general factor that explains the items common source of variance. The aim is to provide new evidence regarding the factor structure of PTSD using CFA and exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM). In a sample of 1,372 undergraduate students, we tested six different models using CFA and two models using ESEM and ESEM bifactor analysis. Trauma event and past-month PTSD symptoms were assessed with Life Events Checklist for DSM-5 (LEC–5) and PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL–5). All six tested CFA models showed good fit indexes (RMSEA = .051–.056, CFI = .969–.977, TLI = .965–.970), with high correlations between factors (M = .77, SD = .09 to M = .80, SD = .09). The ESEM models showed good fit indexes (RMSEA = .027–.036, CFI = .991–.996, TLI = .985–.992). These models confirmed the presence of cross-loadings on several items as well as loads on a general factor that explained 76.3% of the common variance. The results showed that most of the items do not meet the assumption of dimensional exclusivity, showing the need to expand the analysis strategies to study the symptomatic organization of PTSD.