The relationship between adult attachment styles and epistemic trust measured by the Questionnaire Epistemic Trust: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Epistemic trust is suggested to have an effect on therapy outcomes. Theoretically, a safe attachment context is being associated with epistemic trust. Epistemic trust can be defined as an individual’s willingness to consider new knowledge from another person as trustworthy. Therefore, it is desirable to empirically test the association between epistemic trust and (unsafe) attachment contexts. Because an unambiguous measuring instrument for epistemic trust was missing, a questionnaire epistemic trust (QET) was newly developed. The current study examines the initial psychometric properties of this questionnaire. Examined were the dimensions of epistemic trust and its relations with adult attachment styles in the general population. One hundred seventeen respondents (89 woman, 28 men, mean age 45.0 years, range 18-83) completed the 49-item QET, which was applied in the general population for the first time. The Experiences in Close Relationships Scale – Revised (ECR-R) was used to measure adult attachment style. The QET revealed four dimensions: Expertise practitioner, Suspicion, Accepting Help and Openness. Together the dimensions explained 45.2 percent of the variance, with Cronbach’s a varying from .82 to .93. Results showed a link between epistemic trust and adult attachment styles, controlled for level of education (R2 = .27; F (3,112) = 13.56; p <.001). Insecure attachment styles were associated with a lower score on the QET. Specifically, attachment-related avoidance was related to a lower score on the first two dimensions of the QET (Expertise practitioner and Suspicion). This study found four suitable dimensions of the QET with good internal consistency and it empirically shows a relationship between epistemic trust and adult attachment style, which are first steps in further development and validation of the QET.