The impact of attachment styles and defense mechanisms on psychological distress in a non-clinical young adult sample: A path analysis

Abstract

Introduction. Insecure attachment styles and immature or neurotic defense mechanisms are related to psychological distress. However, their mutual interaction in influencing psychological distress deserves further investigation.Methods. One-thousand-one-hundred-twenty-nine University students were evaluated using the Global Severity Index of Symptoms Check List 90-Revised for psychological distress, Relationship Questionnaire for attachment styles and Defense Style Questionnaire for defense mechanisms. Following exploratory analyses, a Path Analysis was performed with psychological distress as outcome.Results. Fearful and preoccupied attachment styles had a substantial impact on psychological distress. About 30% of their effect was mediated by Immature and Neurotic defenses, with the former having the major effect. Dismissing attachment showed no substantial effect on psychological distress. Secure Attachment and Mature Defenses had a small protective effect on psychological distress, but their inclusion in the path model did not improve overall goodness-of-fit. Attachment style and defense mechanisms accounted for nearly 25% of the variance in psychological distress.Conclusions. The results showed that attachment styles and defense mechanisms have a substantial impact on psychological distress. The effect of attachment style is mediated by defense mechanisms. Individual differences in attachment style and defense mechanisms represent risk factors for psychological distress in young adults.

Mentalization, attachment, and defense mechanisms: a Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual-2-oriented empirical investigation

“…These defensive mechanisms protect the individual from awareness of internal conflict and external stressors by attributing his or her own unacknowledged feelings, impulses, or thought to others (projection), by failing to integrate the positive and negative qualities of the self into cohesive image (splitting of self-image), and by expressing of intolerable feelings in impulsive behaviors without prior thought (acting out). These findings add empirical evidences to previously reported correlation between secure/insecure attachment and mature/primitive defense mechanisms (Besharat & Khajavi, 2013;Ciocca et al, 2020;Cramer & Kelly, 2010;Kobak & Bosmans, 2019;McMahon et al, 2005;Prunas et al, 2019).…”

“…According with these findings and clinical literature (cfr., Bowlby, 1973Bowlby, , 1980, we assume that attachment security is associated to mature psychological defenses intervening to modulate and reduce intense painful feelings and impact of negative experiences or events (Ciocca et al, 2020;Kobak & Bosmans, 2019;Malik, Wells, & Wittkowski, 2015). Similarly, it is reasonable to consider a strong connection between RF and defenses taking into account that they help in regulating emotional states activated within interpersonal relationships and influenced by mental procedures and representations from past meaningful relational experiences (Eagle, 2013).…”

Late Adolescents’ Attachment to Parents and Peers and Psychological Distress Resulting from COVID-19. A Study on the Mediation Role of Alexithymia

“…Late adolescence represents a critical phase of life marked by instability and feelings of anxiety and depression [78], and a risk window for the onset of psychopathological problems [79][80][81]. The quality of attachment to parents assumes a crucial role in mitigating or exacerbating this risk [82][83][84], especially in response to stressful experiences. Indeed, stressful life events-as the COVID-19 pandemic-activate the attachment system [39,40], leading the adolescent to activate the related coping strategies and emotional responses in the face of fearful experience [51].…”

The Relationship Between Defense Mechanisms and Attachment as Measured by Observer-Rated Methods in a Sample of Depressed Patients: A Pilot Study

“…When interpreting the cross-sectional associations between defense use and patient attachment, it is important to also consider that our depressed sample included patients with relatively low defensive functioning and mostly insecure attachment classification ( n =21, 70%), with half of the patients ( n =15, 50%) classified as preoccupied. A predominance of insecure and especially preoccupied attachment in a depressed sample is to be expected, as these have been proposed to relate to psychopathology, and specifically, depression (e.g., Laczkovics et al, 2018 ; Ciocca et al, 2020 ); however, the widely varying prevalence of the three attachment styles in our sample limited a fair comparison of patients with different attachment classifications.…”

“…Despite many theoretical and clinical writings, this hypothesized connection between attachment and defense mechanisms has received little empirical attention. The few existing empirical studies generally suggest that insecure attachment is typically associated with an increased use of immature defense mechanisms (e.g., Prunas et al, 2019 ) and that this overreliance on immature defenses leaves insecurely attached individuals particularly vulnerable to psychopathology, such as depression (e.g., Laczkovics et al, 2018 ; Ciocca et al, 2020 ). Up until now, however, empirical studies investigating the association between attachment and defenses have been conducted in non-clinical samples ( Ciocca et al, 2020 ) rather than clinical or treatment samples.…”