Investigated the validation of the Attachment Style Questionnaire (ASQ) and the prevalence of the styles of adult attachment in a French-speaking sample of Montreal. The first part of the study showed that the presumed dimensions of the ASQ had little validity for a sample of 356 individuals between the ages of 14 and 44. Exploratory factor analysis of the ASQ for this sample instead revealed two factors: Avoidance of social relations and Preoccupation with being loved. The second part of the study showed that in the sample, which was somewhat biased toward low SES, prevalence of the autonomous attachment style was about 35% for individuals between the ages of 14 and 44. This is considerably lower than the prevalence generally found for parents and university students. The results support the notions of gender and age differences in the distribution of adult attachment styles. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
