Attachment Patterns and Complex Trauma in a Sample of Transsexual Adults

It is only over the past two decades that transsexualism and gender dysphoria are gaining a growing attention amid scientific literature. In order to better understand the nature of adult transsexualism, several authors focused their research on early traumatic experiences within the attachment relationships. The purpose of the study was to explore the quality of attachment representations and history of traumatic experiences among transsexual adults, and to confront MtFs and FtMs on these matters. Ninety-five transsexual adults from Rome and Naples were compared with seventy-six non-clinical adult. 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 trauma. The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) scoring system was used to assess different types of trauma and their co- occurrence. 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. Finally, within the GD sample, we did not find significant differences between MtFs and FtMs, neither with respect to attachment nor to early relational trauma. Our findings underline the traumatic history and the disorganization of attachment which characterise the experiences and the functioning of our transsexual sample, both in MtFs and FtMs participants.