Examining the complex relations between childhood adversity, mindfulness, attachment, and various personality outcomes: A Bayesian structural equation modeling approach.

Research has demonstrated that childhood abuse and neglect can negatively impact individuals into adulthood. Abuse and neglect are associated with insecure attachment, lower mindfulness, and disordered personality traits, including borderline and psychopathic traits. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of our present study was two-fold; first, we wanted to replicate the finding that the relationships between abuse and neglect and these traits are partly indirect through insecure attachment. Second, we wanted to determine whether mindfulness is an additional mediator in these relationships. METHOD: A sample of 291 undergraduate students participated in the current study (Mage = 21.7, SD = 6.5). RESULTS: Findings from a Bayesian Structural Equation Model supported the prediction that the relationship between childhood abuse and neglect and disordered personality traits was indirect through insecure attachment. More specifically, for borderline traits it was indirect through anxious attachment while interpersonal manipulation and callous affect psychopathic traits it was indirect through avoidant attachment. Importantly, mindfulness was not a significant mediator in the model for any of the outcome variables. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, there was support for the idea that insecure attachment was a potential mechanism in the relationship between childhood abuse and neglect and disordered personality traits, though there was no support for mindfulness as a potential mediator. Implications are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

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 (ß = 0.075, p < .01) and lower mindfulness (ß = 0.069, p < .01). For psychopathic traits, the relationship was indirect through avoidant attachment (Factor 1: ß = 0.078, p < .05; Factor 2: ß = 0.071, p < .05) and lower mindfulness (Factor 1: ß = 0.074, p < .01: Factor 2: ß = 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.