CHILDHOOD ADVERSITY, ATTACHMENT AND PERSONALITY STYLES AS PREDICTORS OF ANXIETY AMONG ELDERLY CAREGIVERS

The purpose of this study was to examine the ways in which childhood a dversity, attachment and personality styles influenced the likelihood of having an anxiety disorder among aged caregivers for terminally ill spouses. We also sought to determine how childhood adversity and atta chment/personality styles jointly influenced the likelihood of develop ing an anxiety disorder among aged caregivers. Data were derived from semistructured interviews with 50 spouses (aged 60 and above) of termi nally ill patients. The Childhood Experience of Care and Abuse (CECA) record provided retrospective, behaviorally based information on child hood adversity. Measures of attachment and personality styles were obt ained from self-report questionnaires, and the Structured Clinical Int erview for the DSM-III-R (SCID) was used to determine diagnoses for an xiety disorders. Logistic regression models estimated the effects of c hildhood adversity, attachment/personality disturbances, and the inter action between the two on the likelihood of having an anxiety disorder . Results indicated that childhood adversity and paranoid, histrionic and self-defeating styles all directly increase the odds of having an anxiety disorder as an elderly spousal caregiver. In addition, childho od adversity in conjunction with border line, antisocial and excessive ly dependent styles increased the likelihood of having an anxiety diso rder The results indicate the need to investigate further the interact ion between childhood experiences and current attachment/personality, styles in their effects on the development of anxiety disorders. (C) 1 996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.