The relation between adults’ state of mind with respect to attachment and automatic thoughts in clinical and healthy conditions
Gabrielle Coppola, Alessandro Costantini, Elisabetta Bascelli, Alessandro Forte
Insecure attachment as well as depressive automatic thoughts have been related to low selfesteem
and both have been identified as predisposing factors for psychopathological outcomes.
Nevertheless, no study has investigated the relation between these two constructs yet. The study aims
to investigate depressive automatic thoughts in relation to adults’ attachment and mental health
condition and to test whether low self-esteem mediates the link between insecure attachment and
automatic thoughts.
The sample included 33 adults subdivided into two groups: a clinically referred one with a diagnosis
of either mood or anxiety disorder and a healthy control one. Instruments included: (1) the Adult
Attachment Interview; (2) the Automatic Thought Questionnaire; (3) the MMPI-2 subscale for Low Self
Esteem.
Controlling for attachment status, depressive automatic thoughts were more frequently reported among
clinically referred adults, compared to healthy ones. Moreover, insecure adults reported lower selfesteem
and more automatic thoughts than secure ones, independently if they were clinically referred
or healthy. Low self-esteem mediated the impact of insecure attachment on depressive automatic
thoughts. These findings contribute to the understanding of the developmental root of dysfunctional
beliefs in adulthood and suggest interesting clinical applications derived from attachment theory and
research.
Keywords
Adult attachment, Adult Attachment Interview, Depressive automatic thoughts,
Self-esteem, Mood disorders, Anxiety disorders, Internalizing disorders.
