A Cross-Cultural Examination of the Experiences in Close Relationships — Revised — General Short Form (ECR-R-GSF) in an Australian and a Chinese Sample

Abstract

Attachment dimensions refer to how interpersonal emotion regulation strategies are utilised and have a profound impact in adulthood. Its measurement has attracted a large amount of research attention. The Experiences in Close Relationships — Revised (ECR-R) Questionnaire is one of the most widely used and researched self-report questionnaires to measure romantic attachment anxiety and avoidance in multiple language groups, despite inconsistent evidence regarding its factorial structure. The 20-item Experiences in Close Relationships — Revised — General Short Form (ECR-R-GSF) was developed based on the ECR-R to measure attachment experiences in all relationships (not just romantic ones) in an English-speaking sample. However, no short form of the ECR-R is available for the Chinese population. In order to cross-validate the first Chinese version of the ECR-R-GSF, specifically the proposed two-factor structure, against the English version, an Australian university student sample (n = 426) and a Chinese university student sample from China (n = 626) were recruited. The Anxiety and Avoidance scales were found to have good internal reliability in both samples. However, the proposed two-factor model only provided an acceptable fit even after adding modifications in the Australian sample, and the fit was not satisfactory in the Chinese sample. Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) indicated that partial metric but not scalar invariance was achieved across cultures. Implications for relationship and cross-cultural research and practice were discussed.

Recalled Parental Bonding Interacts with Oxytocin Receptor Gene Polymorphism in Modulating Anxiety and Avoidance in Adult Relationships

“…ECR-R has been translated into and validated in other languages and used for investigations in Eastern countries, proving good internal validity. At the same time, the few studies that adopted ECR-R for cross-cultural comparisons [ 58 , 59 ] highlighted the possibility that cultural differences could lay at the semantic level. Moreover, it is likely that participants belonging to the Singaporean sample, representing a collectivist population, could express preoccupation towards other people’s opinions compared to the Italian group, displaying greater levels of anxiety and avoidance [ 58 ].…”

The Mediating Role of Affective Empathy in the Relationship Between Insecure Attachment and Depressive Symptoms Among Emerging Adult

“…The ECR-RS consists of 9 items for four types of intimate relationships, six items for attachment avoidance (e.g., “I easily rely on my mother”), and three items for attachment anxiety (e.g., “I am afraid my mother will abandon me”). The cultural equivalence of ECR-RS has been demonstrated (Hao et al, 2019 ). In this study, participants were asked to rate statements regarding their relationships with their mothers on a 7-point scale, from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree).…”

Adolescent attachment to parents and peers in singletons and twins born with assisted and natural conception

“…not directed to specific attachment figures). The reliability and validity of the original ECR-R has been established in several studies for adults ( Sibley and Liu, 2004 ; Sibley et al , 2005 ) and adolescents ( Wilkinson, 2011 ; Hao et al , 2019 ) across various cultures. ECR-R is also highly concordant with adult attachment measures using a categorical approach of secure and insecure attachments ( Wongpakaran et al , 2021 ).…”