Development and validation of scales for measuring avoidance and anxiety in romantic relationships - The Bochum Adult Attachment Questionnaire

The German adaptation of the,Experiences in Close Relationship" (ECR) is introduced, the Bochum Adult Attachment Questionnaire (Bochumer Bindungsfragebogen, BoBi), a measure of self-assessed partner attachment tapping the two dimensions avoidance and anxiety. The BoBi was administered to 435 students and 178 outpatients of a psychosomatic clinic. The two-dimensional structure of the ECR was replicated with the BoBi. Comparisons of the BoBi scales with other partner- and personality-variables showed that avoidance is mainly associated with a lack of romantic love and low relationship success, whereas anxiety is best characterized by possessive love, a feeling of being connected with the partner, and low self-esteem. This pattern of results confirms the construct validity of the BoBi. The BoBi can be used in non-clinical as well as in clinical samples. Studies using the BoBi can be compared to international studies using the ECR.