PERSONALITY, ATTACHMENT PATTERNS AND COMPLEX TRAUMA IN A SAMPLE OF TRANSSEXUAL ADULTS

In order to better understand adult transsexualism, several authors focused their research on personality and early traumatic experiences within the attachment relationships. Trans people’s personality was the object of several research, displaying contrasting results. Some studies reported a high proportion of personality pathology, whereas others showed psychological functioning in the non-psychopathological range. In contrast, just a few studies explored adult attachment. The purpose of this study was to explore personality, quality of attachment representations and history of traumatic experiences among trans adults. 95 trans adults were compared with 123 cisgender adults. The Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) was administered to both samples for the assessment of current state of mind. The Complex Trauma Questionnaire (ComplexTQ) was completed by clinicians in order to evaluate early relational traumas. Personality was assessed in a subsample of 44 individuals with the Shedler-Westen Assessment Procedure-200 (SWAP-200). Data revealed significant differences regarding the distribution of attachment patterns between transsexuals and the control sample. The two samples also differentiated regarding the exposure to complex trauma in childhood and the intensity of multi-type maltreatment experienced. With regard to personality, overall individuals showed a good functioning. In order to find latent subgroups that shared personality characteristics a Q-factor analysis was performed. Three personality clusters emerged: High Functioning (54%); Depressive/Introverted (32%) and Histrionic/Extroverted (14%). Our findings underline the traumatic history and the disorganization of attachment which characterise the experiences of our transsexual sample and indicate that in terms of personality trans individuals show articulate and diverse types.