The Use of the Adult Attachment Scale with Domestically Violent Men

Empirical evidence highlights the utility of examining attachment styles in exploring the etiology of intimate partner violence
perpetration, with insecure attachment styles regularly identified as underscoring domestically violent men. This study applied
the 18-item self-report Adult Attachment Scale (Collins & Read, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58(4), 644–663 1990) to 176 men entering a domestic violence perpetration counseling program. Factor analyses failed to result in the three factor
model of the AAS. Subsequent item analyses indicated participants’ random and contradictory response style negated the possibility
of any coherent factor structure. The results of this study caution investigators on the validity of self-report data with
domestically violent men and offers both research and clinical/conceptual implications.