Understanding the relationship between personality pathology and attachment style in the context of the DSM-5 Alternative Model of Personality Disorders

Attachment and Mindfulness as Mediators in the Relationship Between Childhood Adversity and Personality Outcomes

Past research has shown that those with greater experiences of adversity (abuse and neglect) tend to exhibit insecure attachments, more borderline symptoms, higher psychopathic traits, and are lower in mindfulness. Similarly, there have been positive relationships between insecure attachment styles and borderline and psychopathic traits as well as lower mindfulness and borderline and psychopathic traits. Further, adversity can have a detrimental effect on physical and mental health, including attachment and personality, which necessitate examining this further. The purpose of this study was to examine the indirect relationships between childhood adversity and borderline traits, Factor 1, and Factor 2 of psychopathy all through lower mindfulness, anxious attachment, and avoidant attachment respectively. In this study, using youth retrospective data (N = 395, age range = 12-18, M = 14.64, SD = 1.52), 3 separate mediation models are examined. As expected, the relationship between adversity and borderline traits was indirect through anxious attachment (β = 0.075, p < .01) and lower mindfulness (β = 0.069, p < .01). For psychopathic traits, the relationship was indirect through avoidant attachment (Factor 1: β = 0.078, p < .05; Factor 2: β = 0.071, p < .05) and lower mindfulness (Factor 1: β = 0.074, p < .01: Factor 2: β = 0.076, p < .01). The results suggest that lower mindfulness and insecure attachment are important factors in the expression of disordered personality. Therefore, both mindfulness and attachment-focused interventions could mitigate the harmful effects of adversity and the subsequent expression of disordered personality symptoms.