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Psychometric properties of the Italian version of the Experience in Close Relationship Scale 12 (ECR-12): an exploratory structural equation modeling study

The Experiences in Close Relationship Scale (ECR) is one of the most commonly used self-report instruments of adult attachment and has been widely adopted in psychotherapy research. Composed of two subscales, namely Attachment Avoidance and Anxiety, the ECR was recently shortened to a 12-items versi...

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Autores principales: Brugnera, Agostino, Zarbo, Cristina, Farina, Benedetto, Picardi, Angelo, Greco, Andrea, Lo Coco, Gianluca, Tasca, Giorgio A., Carlucci, Samantha, Auteri, Adalberto, Greco, Francesco, Compare, Angelo
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PAGEPress Publications, Pavia, Italy 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7453162/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32913809
http://dx.doi.org/10.4081/ripppo.2019.392
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author Brugnera, Agostino
Zarbo, Cristina
Farina, Benedetto
Picardi, Angelo
Greco, Andrea
Lo Coco, Gianluca
Tasca, Giorgio A.
Carlucci, Samantha
Auteri, Adalberto
Greco, Francesco
Compare, Angelo
author_facet Brugnera, Agostino
Zarbo, Cristina
Farina, Benedetto
Picardi, Angelo
Greco, Andrea
Lo Coco, Gianluca
Tasca, Giorgio A.
Carlucci, Samantha
Auteri, Adalberto
Greco, Francesco
Compare, Angelo
author_sort Brugnera, Agostino
collection PubMed
description The Experiences in Close Relationship Scale (ECR) is one of the most commonly used self-report instruments of adult attachment and has been widely adopted in psychotherapy research. Composed of two subscales, namely Attachment Avoidance and Anxiety, the ECR was recently shortened to a 12-items version, called the ECR-12. Given the importance of extending knowledge on its applicability in understudied populations, our aim was to validate the ECR-12 in a large sample of Italian native-speakers. A total of 1197 participants (73.2% females; mean age=28.53±11.37 years) completed the ECR-12. Each participant also completed other measures of attachment, psychopathology, interpersonal distress, coping strategies, and well-being. An Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling analysis showed an excellent fit of the data, providing support for the two-dimensional orthogonal structure of the ECR-12. In addition, the measurement model was invariant across genders. Both attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance subscales demonstrated good internal reliability, with McDonald’s Omegas and Cronbach’s Alphas above the suggested 0.8 cut-off. Finally, the Italian version of ECR-12 showed adequate convergent, concurrent, and divergent validity. Highly anxious individuals reported the highest levels of maladaptive interpersonal functioning and coping strategies, resulting in lower well-being. Interestingly, both attachment insecurity dimensions predicted higher levels of psychopathology, even after controlling for demographic variables and levels of self-reported relational difficulties. Given the good psychometric properties of the ECR-12, researchers and practitioners in Italy are encouraged to adopt the ECR-12 in their future research on adult attachment in psychotherapy.
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spelling pubmed-74531622020-09-09 Psychometric properties of the Italian version of the Experience in Close Relationship Scale 12 (ECR-12): an exploratory structural equation modeling study Brugnera, Agostino Zarbo, Cristina Farina, Benedetto Picardi, Angelo Greco, Andrea Lo Coco, Gianluca Tasca, Giorgio A. Carlucci, Samantha Auteri, Adalberto Greco, Francesco Compare, Angelo Res Psychother Article The Experiences in Close Relationship Scale (ECR) is one of the most commonly used self-report instruments of adult attachment and has been widely adopted in psychotherapy research. Composed of two subscales, namely Attachment Avoidance and Anxiety, the ECR was recently shortened to a 12-items version, called the ECR-12. Given the importance of extending knowledge on its applicability in understudied populations, our aim was to validate the ECR-12 in a large sample of Italian native-speakers. A total of 1197 participants (73.2% females; mean age=28.53±11.37 years) completed the ECR-12. Each participant also completed other measures of attachment, psychopathology, interpersonal distress, coping strategies, and well-being. An Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling analysis showed an excellent fit of the data, providing support for the two-dimensional orthogonal structure of the ECR-12. In addition, the measurement model was invariant across genders. Both attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance subscales demonstrated good internal reliability, with McDonald’s Omegas and Cronbach’s Alphas above the suggested 0.8 cut-off. Finally, the Italian version of ECR-12 showed adequate convergent, concurrent, and divergent validity. Highly anxious individuals reported the highest levels of maladaptive interpersonal functioning and coping strategies, resulting in lower well-being. Interestingly, both attachment insecurity dimensions predicted higher levels of psychopathology, even after controlling for demographic variables and levels of self-reported relational difficulties. Given the good psychometric properties of the ECR-12, researchers and practitioners in Italy are encouraged to adopt the ECR-12 in their future research on adult attachment in psychotherapy. PAGEPress Publications, Pavia, Italy 2019-12-20 /pmc/articles/PMC7453162/ /pubmed/32913809 http://dx.doi.org/10.4081/ripppo.2019.392 Text en ©Copyright: the Author(s) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Article
Brugnera, Agostino
Zarbo, Cristina
Farina, Benedetto
Picardi, Angelo
Greco, Andrea
Lo Coco, Gianluca
Tasca, Giorgio A.
Carlucci, Samantha
Auteri, Adalberto
Greco, Francesco
Compare, Angelo
Psychometric properties of the Italian version of the Experience in Close Relationship Scale 12 (ECR-12): an exploratory structural equation modeling study
title Psychometric properties of the Italian version of the Experience in Close Relationship Scale 12 (ECR-12): an exploratory structural equation modeling study
title_full Psychometric properties of the Italian version of the Experience in Close Relationship Scale 12 (ECR-12): an exploratory structural equation modeling study
title_fullStr Psychometric properties of the Italian version of the Experience in Close Relationship Scale 12 (ECR-12): an exploratory structural equation modeling study
title_full_unstemmed Psychometric properties of the Italian version of the Experience in Close Relationship Scale 12 (ECR-12): an exploratory structural equation modeling study
title_short Psychometric properties of the Italian version of the Experience in Close Relationship Scale 12 (ECR-12): an exploratory structural equation modeling study
title_sort psychometric properties of the italian version of the experience in close relationship scale 12 (ecr-12): an exploratory structural equation modeling study
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7453162/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32913809
http://dx.doi.org/10.4081/ripppo.2019.392
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