The relationship questionnaire-clinical version (RQ-CV): Introducing a profoundly-distrustful attachment style

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Abstract
Cost‐efficient prenatal assessments are needed that have the potential to identify those at risk for parent/infant relational problems. With this goal in mind, an additional attachment style description was added to the Relationship Questionnaire (Bartholomew & Horowitz, 1991), an established self‐report attachment measure, to create the Relationship Questionnaire: Clinical Version (RQ‐CV). The additional description represents a profoundly‐distrustful attachment style: “I think it's a mistake to trust other people. Everyone's looking out for themselves, so the sooner you learn not to expect anything from anybody else the better.” The RQ‐CV was applied to a sample of 44 low‐income mothers who had participated in a previous study of the impact of family risk factors on infant development. After first controlling for demographic risk factors and for other insecure adult attachment styles, mother's profound‐distrust was associated with three independent assessments of the quality of maternal interactions with the infant assessed 20 years earlier. In particular, profound‐distrust was related to more hostile, intrusive, and negative behaviors toward the infant. The results are discussed within the framework of attachment theory.

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