Assessment of proportion of attachment styles in prediction of college students’ happiness

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 MA. in clinical psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

2 Ph.D. in health services management, Faculty member of Health and Management Department, Faculty of Health, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran

3 Ph.D. in psychology, Member of Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

Abstract

Introduction: According to the focus of positive psychology as a new approach in perception of mental wellbeing and prediction of effective factors, the present study aimed to assessment of proportion of attachment styles in prediction of college students’ happiness.
 Materials and Methods: The statistical community of this correlative study concluded all of female students of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad in academic year of 2013-2014. Number of 357 participants according to Morgan formula selected via randomized method. They fulfilled the questionnaires of happiness and attachment styles. Data analyzed by descriptive statistics, Pearson coefficient and regression analysis.
 Results: The findings indicated that there was positive and significant relation between happiness and safe attachment style (P=0.001 and r=0.44) on the other hand there were negative and significant relations between happiness and avoidance and ambivalent attachment styles (P=0.01, r= -0.25 and P=0.05, r= -0.19 respectively). Also among 3 attachment styles, only safe attachment style can predict students happiness (P=0.001 and Beta=0.36) so one score increase in score of safe attachment style can predict 0.36 increase of happiness score.
 Conclusion: According to the importance of happiness and the role of safe attachment style in prediction of happiness, safe and deep parent-child emotional relationship in childhood is recommended.

Keywords


  1. Memichaei A, Hetzl B. Mental health problems among university students and their relationship to academic failure and withdrawal. Med J of Aust 1975; 1: 499-501.
  2. Ouyang Y, Zhu Y, Fan W, Tan Q, Zhong Y. People higher in self-control do not necessarily experience more happiness: Regulatory focus also affects subjective well-being. Pers Individ Diff 2015; 86: 406-11.
  3. Merkle C, Egan DP, Davies GB. Investor happiness. J Econom Psychol 2015; 49: 167-86.
  4. Carr Positive psychology: Handbook of psychology. New York: Runner-Routledge; 2003: 30.
  5. Tiefenbach T, Kohlbacher F. Individual differences in the relationship between domain satisfaction and happiness: The moderating role of domain importance. Pers Individ Diff 2015; 86: 82-7.
  6. Perez-Truglia R. A Samuelsonian validation test for happiness data. J Econom Psychol 2015; 49: 74-83.
  7. Schultz D. [Personality theories]. Boheiraei H, Jamhari F, Karimi Y, Goudarzi B, Naghshbandi S, Nikkhoo MR. (translators). Tehran: Arasbaran; 2009: 67. (Persian)
  8. Taube-Schiff M, Van Exan J, Tanaka R, Wnuk S, Hawa R, Sockalingam S. Attachment style and emotional eating in bariatric surgery candidates: The mediating role of difficulties in emotion regulation. Eat Behav 2015; 18: 36-40.
  9. Quijada Y, Kwapil TR, Tizón G, Sheinbaum T, Barrantes-Vidal N. Impact of attachment style on the 1-year outcome of persons with an at-risk mental state for psychosis. Psychiatry Research 2015; 228(3): 849-56.
  10. Oshri A, Sutton TE, Clay-Warner J, Miller JD. Child maltreatment types and risk behaviors: Associations with attachment style and emotion regulation dimensions. Pers Individ Diff 2015; 73: 127-33.
  11. Chung K, Choi E. Attachment styles and mother’s well-being among mothers of preschool children in Korea: The mediating role of marital satisfaction. Pers Individ Diff 2014; 69: 135-9.
  12. Williams SK, Kelly FD. Relationship among involvement, attachment, and behavioral problems in adolescence. Med Teach 2005; 20(3): 168-96.
  13. Baumel A, Berant E. The role of attachment styles in malicious envy. J Res Pers 2015; 55: 1-9.
  14. Williams SK, Kelly FD. Relationship among involvement, attachment, and behavioral problems in adolescence. Med Teach 2005 ; 20(3): 168-196.
  15. Woodhouse S, Ayers S, Field AP. The relationship between adult attachment style and post-traumatic stress symptoms: A meta-analysis. J Anxiety Disord 2015; 35: 103-17.
  16. Blalock DV, Franzese AT, Machell KA, Strauman TJ. Attachment style and self-regulation: How our patterns in relationships reflect broader motivational styles. Pers Individ Diff 2015; 87: 90-98.
  17. Meng X, D’Arcy C, Adams C. Associations between adult attachment style and mental health care utilization: Findings from a large-scale national survey. Psychiatry Res 2015; 229: 454-61.
  18. Seligman M. Relationship between  happiness  and personality. Pers Individ Diff 2005; 19: 251-8.
  19. Marday M. [Happiness and personality]. News in cognitive sciences 2006; 2: 61-3. (Persian)
  20. Alavi P. [Assessment of the relation between happiness and personality among athletic and non-athletic college student girls of Tabriz University]. MS. Dissertation. Islamic Azad University, Branch of central Tehran, Faculty of sport sciences: 98. (Persian)
  21. Taghipour M. [Assessment of social support in social health of house-hold women in Tehran]. MS. Dissertation. Islamic Azad University, Branch of Roudehen, 2011: 1. (Persian)
  22. Kerjcie M. Determining sample size for research activities. Educ Psychol Meas 1970; 30: 607-10.
  23. Hazan C, Shaver P. Conceptualizing romantic love as and attachment process. J Pers Soc Psychol 2002; 52: 511-24.
  24. Besharat M, Noorbakhsh SN, Rostami R, Farahani H. [The modulating role of self-regulation in the relation between attachment styles and severity of substance abuse disorders]. Quarterly journal of clinical psychology 2013; 4(3): 11-23. (Persian)
  25. Argyle M, Lue L. The happiness of Pers Individ Diff 1990; 11: 10-11.
  26. Alipour A, Noorbala AA. [Pilot assessment of validity and reliability of Oxford Happiness Inventory in students of Tehran universities]. Iranian journal of psychiatry and clinical psychology 2000; 5(1-2): 16-32. (Persian)
  27. Asgharinejad M, Danesh E. [The relationship between attachment styles, happiness and agreement in marital problems among college student married women]. News and researches 2013; 4: 69-90. (Persian)
  28. Bayrami M, Heshmati R, Mohammadpour V, Gholamzadeh M, Ostad Hasanloo H, Moslemifar M. Happiness and willingness to communicate in three attachment styles: A study on college students. Procedia Soc Behav Sci 2012; 46: 294-8.
  29. Öztürk A, Mutlu T. The relationship between attachment style, subjective well-being, happiness and social anxiety among university students. Procedia Soc Behav Sci 2010; 9: 1772-6.
  30. Greenberg MT, Sigel JM, Leith CJ. The nature and importance of attachment  relationship to parents and peers during adolescence. J Youth Adolesc 2008; 12: 373-86.
  31. Gillath O, Bunge SA, Shaver PR, Wendelken C, Mikulincer M. Attachment-style differences in the ability to suppress negative thoughts: exploring the neural correlates. Neuroimage 2005; 28(4): 835-47.
  32. Ditommaso E, Brannen-McNulty C, Ross L, Burgess M. Attachment styles, social skills and loneliness in young adults. Pers Individ Diff 2003; 35(2): 303-12.
  33. Mikulincer M, Shaver PR. The attachment behavioral system in adulthood: Activation, psychodynamics, and interpersonal processes. Adv Exp Soc Psychol 2003; 35: 53-152
  34. Lavy S, Littman-Ovadia H. All you need is love? Strengths mediate the negative associations between attachment orientations and life satisfaction. Pers Individ Diff 2011; 50(7): 1050-5.
  35. Muris P, Meesters C. Attachment, behavioral inhibition, and anxiety disorders in normal adolescents. J Psychopathol Behav Assess 2002; 24: 97-106.
  36. Borjali A, Borshan A, Dortaj S. [Assessment of the role of birth sequence and attachment style in substance dependency]. Quarterly journal of regulatory and police security 2010; 3(2): 127-50. (Persian)
  37. Pereg D, Mikulincer M. Attachment style and the regulation of negative effect. Pers Soc Psychol Bull 2004; 30: 67-80.
  38. Taheri M, Pourmohammad Rezaei Tajrishi M, Soltani Bahram S. [The relationship between attachment style and life hope among mothers with educable mentally retarded boys]. Journal of fundamentals of mental health 2013; 1: 24-35. (Persian)
  39. Momeni F. [The comparison of attachment styles among young people with visual, auditory defects and mental retardation and gifted and normal young individuals in Isfahan]. MS. Dissertation. Isfahan University, 2009. (Persian)
  40. Huntsinger ET, Luecken LJ. Attachment relationship and health behavior: The mediation role of self-steam. J Psychol Health 2004; 19(4): 515-26.