Quality of object relations and security of attachment as predictors of early therapeutic alliance.

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Security of attachment and quality of object relations were measured as predictors of initial impressions of the therapeutic alliance as well as dropout. Fifty-five individual psychotherapy clients were administered the Revised Adult Attachment Scale and the Bell Object Relations and Reality Testing Inventory prior to their initial therapy session. Thirty of these participants completed the Working Alliance Inventory following their 1 st, 2nd, and 3rd sessions. Security of attachment and quality of object relations were strongly related. Security of attachment and quality of object relations showed relations to early alliance that decreased over time. Attachment and object relations were not related to dropout. Limitations include small sample size and low research compliance rate.