Thesis title: Legami di attaccamento e conflitto coniugale nelle separazioni e nei divorzi: una ricerca empirica
This paper fits within in the Italian legal-forensic context that is in great turmoil due to needs for updating. Specifically, it wants to ask about the usefulness of a specific assessment of attachment patterns when the court requires a personality assessment in child custody or for a possible therapeutic project. There are not many clinicians in Italy who, despite the literature on the subject (e.g. McIntosh 2011; George 2011; Lieberman 2011; Main, Hesse, Hesse 2011), conduct these assessments.
Specifically, we moved on two objectives: first, the study and investigation of some factors associated with high conflict in separating parent couples, devoting particular attention to mental state respect to attachment; second, the analysis of factors related to Judges' decisions regarding child custody. We hypothesized that disorganized mental state with respect to attachment could be a significant risk factor in marital separations, because of the mournful burden they inevitably involve (Bakermans-Kranenburg & Van IJzendoorn, 1997; Brown, Felton, Whiteman & Manela, 1980; Davis, Shaver & Vernon, 2003; Finzi, Cohen & Ram, 2000; Pistole, 1996; Sbarra & Emery, 2005) and that it could also represent a risk factor in connection with levels of conflict between parents as a form of bond maintenance.
In order to do this, we measured several variables in 48 cisgender heterosexual couples facing a Custody Evaluation with children aged 1–16 years. Specifically, state of mind with respect to attachment using the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI; George; Kaplan, Main 1984-1996), personality using the Shedler, Westen Assesment Procedure (SWAP-200; Westen, Shedler, Lingiardi 2003), parenting through several scales taken from the DC 0-5 manual (Diagnostic Classification of Mental Health and Developmental Disorders of Infancy and Early Childhood; 2016), the level of conflict through purpose-built scales. In addition, we had access to the decrees issued by the Judges as a result of the Custody Evaluation.
To test the first objective (to identify the most relevant factors associated with couple conflict), a linear multiple regression was conducted by including parents' gender, their socioeconomic status (given some evidence in the literature indicating an association between SES and high conflict), AAI secure-insecure attachment, AAI organization-disorganization, and the most representative SWAP-200 personality characteristics in mothers and fathers.
To test the second objective (to examine factors that are associated with court child custody decisions), a generalized linear model was run including: parents' gender, couple conflict, AAI secure-insecure, AAI organization-disorganization, and the most representative SWAP-200 personality traits in mothers and fathers (i.e., SWAP-200 histrionic, dependent, obsessive, high-functioning depressive, narcissistic, and hostile Q factors) and their interaction with parents' gender.
We found the following results.
First, we performed descriptive analyses to characterize the sample we examined, both with respect to personality scale distributions and attachment patterns.
Regarding the first objective (to identify the most relevant factors associated with couple conflict), we found that a disorganized mental state at a parent's AAI is a risk factor for couple conflict, β = .61, ES = .24, p = .013. Similarly, regardless of the gender of the parents, low dependent personality traits, β = -.46, ES = .24, p = .010, and high hostile personality traits, β = .44, ES = .18, p = .019, are associated with greater couple conflict. Finally, the interaction between parental gender and hostile factor SWAP-200 Q was also significant, β = .73, ES = .23, p = .002. A simple slope analysis suggested that high levels of couple conflict are particularly influenced by fathers' hostile personality traits, β = .44, ES = .18, p = .019 (interaction for mothers: β = .29, ES = .17, p = .095).
Regarding the second objective (to examine factors associated with court child custody decisions), the generalized linear model indicated that in cases of disorganized mental state at AAI of a parent, the probability that the court would decide for unshared custody was almost 12 times higher than in cases where parents had an organized mental state at AAI, exp(β) = 11.77, p = .007. In addition, higher quality parenting increased the likelihood of shared custody of the children by 1.23 times, exp(β) = 1.23, p = .026; while higher couple conflict decreased of 0.29 times the likelihood of a shared child custody, exp(β) = 0.29, p = .046. Neither SWAP-200 personality Q-factors, nor SWAP-200 high functioning of personality, nor an AAI secure state of mind seemed to influence the Court’s child custody decisions.
The results were discussed and interpreted, and some spillovers that the research might have on the Italian context were also hypothesized. Finally, the limitations of the research and possible avenues that further research could follow were also discussed.