Adolescents’ Attachment: Content and Discriminant Validity of the Friends and Family Interview

Objectives There are few methods to assess attachment representations during adolescence, all showing strengths and limits. The Friends and Family Interview (FFI) is the only narrative interview considering a wide range of relevant domains in adolescents’ life, including peer and sibling relationships, as well as self-esteem, relations with parents and reflective functioning. However, the FFI has been used sparingly with community samples, never with adolescents older than 14-years, and few studies have investigated its psychometric characteristics. This study aimed at investigating the content and discriminant validity of the FFI, comparing the distribution of FFI classifications with the distribution observed in adolescents in response to the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI), based on national and international meta-analytic reports. This paper also aimed to consider FFI classifications and rating scales with respondents’ gender, age, verbal intelligence and internalizing-externalizing problems.