Attachment style and symptomatic burden of psychotherapy patients

Attachment theory is of growing importance for psychotherapy research. One central issue is the assessment of attachment styles in adults and psychoth erapy patients respectively. The,,Bielefeld Questionnaire for measuring cli ent expectations in psychotherapy - BFKE" (Hoger) tries to operationalize a ttachment behaviour by configurations of scores on the three dimensions "ex pectation of acceptance", "readiness for selfdisclosure" and,need for atten tion" Our study tests the construct validity of the BFKE. 71 psychotherapy inpati ents were studied first to replicate the 5-cluster solution of attachment s tyles (Hoger) and secondly to investigate the model of activated and inacti vated attachment systems. The latter was done by comparing subjective sympt omatic complaints in the five attachment styles with clinical ratings in th e same groups. Results showed stability of the 5-cluster solution. Furthermore we found a high prevalence of insecure attachment in inpatients. Ambivalently attached patients show a higher amount of subjectively experienced symptoms, patien ts with avoidant attachment have relatively low symptomatic scores. Clinica l rating of symptomatic burden is similiar in both groups. The BFKE is able to differentiate between patients with activated and inactivated attachmen t systems. It can be used in process and outcome research. Its predictive v alidity will be investigated in further studies.