Attachment Disorganization and Dissociative Symptoms in Clinically Treated Adolescents

OBJECTIVE: To examine the association of unresolved and unclassifiable attachment with dissociative symptomatology in a sample of 133 adolescents in psychiatric treatment. METHOD: The study compared 69 adolescents who were unresolved and unclassifiable with 64 adolescents who were not unresolved and unclassifiable. Attachment organization was assessed using the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI). Dissociative symptomatology was assessed using a scale derived from the Youth Self Report (YSR) behaviour checklist. RESULTS: A continuing unresolved and unclassifiable response to attachment-related trauma was correlated with dissociative symptomatology for both male and female adolescents. CONCLUSIONS: Cognitive disorganization may be an important variable mediating between the effects of earlier traumatic caregiving experiences and later dissociative symptoms.