Development of a brief, clinically relevant, scale for measuring attachment disorders.

Abstract

A 17-item questionnaire for reactive attachment disorders (RAD) was developed and administered to 182 Scottish children living in foster care. The RAD questionnaire had a good test-retest reliability with an intra-class correlation (ICC) of 0.78 and inter-rater reliability with an ICC of 0.81. Cluster analysis showed that the children fell into three groups, two of which corresponded to the two reactive attachment disorder subtypes. High questionnaire scores for attachment disorders were significantly associated with conduct problems, emotional problems, hyperactivity and problems with peer relations and negatively associated with pro-social behaviour. High overall questionnaire scores for reactive attachment disorder were associated with previous sexual abuse, whereas there was no association with previous physical abuse. High scores for the disinhibited subtype were associated with previous neglect.