Childhood and adult attachment styles in patients with depression

The aim of this study was to compare the attachment styles of the individuals diagnosed with and without depression to the parental child-rearing attitudes. The patient group of the study included 118 patients with depression aged between 18-65 years, who applied to the outpatient clinic of Uludag University Medical Faculty Psychiatry Department, and who were diagnosed with depression and using regular medication according to DSM MIV-R and DSM V criteria. The healthy group of the study consisted of 130 healthy individuals aged between 18-65 years who had similar demographic characteristics with the patients who were not diagnosed with depression. Within the scope of this research, in order to determine the attachment styles of the participants, "Experiences in Close Relationships Inventory-II", to determine the child-rearing attitudes of the parents of the participants, "Child-Rearing Attitudes Scale", and to determine their depression levels, "Beck Depression Inventory" were used. In addition, the patients and healthy individuals were investigated whether they differed in terms of demographic characteristics such as economic level, education, marital status, working status, and gender. As a result, it has been observed that the patient group and healthy group differed in terms of variables of marital status, having a child, education level, working status, smoking status, depression scores, anxiety - avoidance scores, attachment styles, parental acceptance/interest - strict supervision/control scores, and parental child-rearing attitudes. The patient group was also compared within itself in terms of gender, age, anxiety - avoidance scores, acceptance/interest and strict supervision/control scores, attachment styles, parental child-rearing attitude, suicide, year of disease onset, duration of treatment, duration of medication, number of hospitalizations, hospitalization period, the number of depression attacks, and attack duration variables, and then the associated variables were identified. As for the healthy group, there is a difference in terms of depression scores, according to gender categorical variable.