Research aim:

• To examine the attachment patterns and reflective function in traumatised refugees in Denmark and explore to what extent these factors predict psychotherapeutic alliance and treatment effect.

• To get a better insight into the development and personality-psychological upbringing and accompanying development-psychopathological factors, and examine whether and how these individual differences inhibit or promote the recovery, for the sake of developing the psychotherapeutic treatment in accordance with the patients' needs.

Design: A process-effect study

Population: 60 Arabic-speaking trauma-affected refugees referred to treatment at CTP.

Methods: This process-effect study examines attachment patterns and reflective function in the Arabicspeaking patients included in PTF2 and illustrates the importance hereof for psychotherapeutic process and treatment efficacy using the measuring instruments Adult Attachment Interview (AAI), Revised Adult Attachment Scale (RAAS), Reflective Functioning (RF) Working Alliance Inventory (WAI), Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ) and the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25 (HSCL-25). Finally, this study discusses the meaning of the results in relation to the future development of psychotherapeutic treatment.

Primary investigator: Karin Riber, Msc Psychology, PhD

Supervisors: Susanne Lunn, Msc Psychology, PhD, Ask Elklit, Msc Psychology, PhD, Simo Køppe, Msc Psychology, PhD

Publications

Riber, K. (2017). Trauma complexity and child abuse: A qualitative study of attachment narratives in adult refugees with PTSD. Transcultural psychiatry, 54(5-6), 840-869.