Attachment Style Questionnaire

Attachment is the emotional bond between the child and their parent or caregiver. For three decades, immense work has been done to understand attachment and its dynamics. (Bartholomew and Horowitz, J Personal Soc Psychol, 61:226–244, 1991) conceptualized four-attachment styles: secure, preoccupied, fearful, and dismissing attachment style. The Attachment Style Questionnaire (ASQ; Dutch Version; Oudenhoven et al., Nederlands Tijdschrift Voor De Psychologie En Haar Grensgebieden 58:95–102, 2003; English version; Hofstra et al., Int J Intercult Relat 29(5):601–619, 2005) measures these four attachment styles using a 5-point Likert scale. Previous studies indicate the significant impact of culture on attachment styles. Therefore, any tool used to gain insight into attachment styles should be culturally validated before its use. In the present study, we aimed to examine the validity and psychometric properties of the 22-item ASQ, using a sample of young adults from India aged between 18 and 27 years (N = 779; Male = 404; Female = 375) in the Indian cultural context. The results of the confirmatory factor analysis showed that the four-factor model with 22 items did show satisfactory model fit (χ2(203) = 658.037; p < 0.001; CFI = 0.877; RMSEA = 0.054). But when an item with low loading was removed, the model with 21 items did show excellent fit (χ2(182) = 476.757; p < 0.001; CFI = 0.920; RMSEA = 0.046; SRMR = 0.0539) in the Indian cultural context. The scale showed good internal consistency (Cronbach’s Alpha = 0.792). This chapter will also include results of convergent validity and measurement invariance across genders.