Iranian Adaptation of the Revised Adult Attachment Scale: Validity and Reliability in the General Population

The Revised Adult Attachment Scale (RAAS) is a well-established self-report measure for research purposes. Its three-factor structure has been employed in Iranian populations for years, despite the lack of evidence to support its psychometric properties. The current study aimed to assess the factor structure, convergent validity, and reliability of RAAS in Iranian community adults.

A sample of 605 participants (354 females, 251 males) was randomly divided into two samples (n1 = 303, n2 = 302) for factor analytic purposes. Along with RAAS, measures of mentalizing capacity, emotion dysregulation and borderline personality disorder were administered. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were applied to evaluate the factor structures proposed for its original version.

Overall, factor analyses suggested the two-factor structure (i.e., anxiety and avoidance) to be the better fit for the data. Due to weak factor loading, six items were removed, resulting in a 12-item scale. Furthermore, Anxiety and avoidance demonstrated significant correlations with attachment-related instruments (p<.001) and their internal consistencies were also acceptable (α = .83 and .76, respectively).

Our findings were congruent with previous theoretical underpinnings and provided support for the Iranian adaptation of RAAS in the general population.