A Spanish Version of the Experiences in Close Relationships Scale - Short Form (ECR-S) Adult Attachment Questionnaire

Despite a wealth of literature on attachment theory and its diverse implications across relational, psychological, and health domains (Sroufe, 2005), cross-cultural understanding of attachment has remained limited. This is, in part, a natural consequence of the considerable lack of validated attachment measures in non-English languages. The need for validated research measures in Spanish, in particular, has become especially apparent in recent years, as Hispanics now represent the largest and fastest growing minority population in the U.S. (Passel, Cohn, & Lopez, 2011). This study therefore aimed to validate a Spanish version of the Experiences in Close Relationships Scale - Short Form (ECR-S; Wei, Russell, Mallinckrodt, & Vogel, 2007). Hypotheses centered upon the assessment of the reliability, validity, and underlying factor structure of the Spanish ECR-S. Participants (N = 85) were Spanish-speaking women recruited from outpatient Ob/Gyn clinics, where they completed a battery of brief questionnaires to assess attachment style, psychological distress, and demographic information. Coefficient alphas were .80 and .60 for the anxiety and avoidance subscales of the Spanish version of the ECR-S, following removal of a problematic item. Test-retest reliability of the two subscales were r = .70 (p < .001) and r = .68 (p < .001), respectively. As expected, Spanish ECR-S anxiety (r = .81, p < .001) and avoidance (r = .72, p < .001) levels were found to correlate highly with those of the full-length Spanish ECR, as well as with symptoms of depression (r = .29 - .51, p < .05). Hypotheses of discriminant validity were not supported, with positive correlations found between ECR-S subscale scores and symptoms of ADHD (r = .24 - .46, p < .05) and psychosis (r = .28 - .45, p < .05). Although the Spanish ECR-S yielded two relatively independent factors, they were inconsistent with the expected underlying factor structure of two orthogonal dimensions of attachment anxiety and avoidance. Overall, this version of the Spanish ECR-S will require revision for validation and use in clinical and research settings; however, this study highlights the pressing and important need for more culturally sensitive measures of attachment in the Spanish language.