Understanding the relationship between personality pathology and attachment style in the context of the DSM-5 Alternative Model of Personality Disorders

This study utilizes the two different criteria of the DSM-5 Alternative Model of Personality Disorder Assessment to evaluate the relationship between attachment style and personality pathology. One-hundred forty patients from a combined sample of psychiatric and internal medicine clinics were given a survey composed of the DSM-5 Levels of Personality Functioning Questionnaire (DLOPFQ), the Personality Inventory for DSM-5-Brief Form (PID-5-BF), and the Relationship Questionnaire (RQ). Analysis of variance indicated that attachment styles were differentiated across all four the DLOPFQ scales and the Detachment trait domain. Elastic net regression modeling with bootstrap was used to assess the strength of the level of personality functioning dimensions and trait domains in the prediction of attachment style, both independently and interactively while accounting for multicollinearity. This study offers readers insight to a novel statistical approach to model building that addresses two issues among psychiatric data: high correlation and small sample size.