Comparison of attachment styles, defense styles and resiliency in patients with multiple Sclerosis (MS) and healthy people

Abstract

In previous researches, attachment style, defense style and resiliency have been studied in patients with physical illness. The main problem of the present study is investigation these variables in multiple-sclerosis patients. The purpose of the present study was to compare attachment styles, defense styles, and resiliency between patients with M.S and healthy subjects. In a descriptive and causal- comparative research, one hundred patient with M.S (52 Man, 48 Woman) and one hundred healthy peoples (52 Man, 48 Woman) that selected conveniently, were asked to complete the Adult Attachment Inventory (AAI: Hazan & Shaver, 1987), the Defense Style Questionnaire (DSQ: Andrews, et al, 1993) and the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC: Connor & Davidson, 2003). The collected data has been analyzed by Multivariate analysis of variance. The results showed that the study groups were significantly different in attachment styles, defense style and resiliency. That is, MS patients showed more insecure attachment style and immature defense style and less resiliency than healthy subjects.

Keywords

• attachment
• defense style
• resiliency
• multiple sclerosis