Attachment Styles and Psychological Distress Among University Students: The Mediating Role of Interpersonal Emotion Regulation

Abstract :

The present study aimed to examine the mediating role of interpersonal emotion regulation in the relationship between attachment styles and psychological distress among university students. This research is fundamental in purpose and descriptive correlational in method. The statistical population included all Birjand University students aged 18 to 25 during the academic year 2024–2025, of whom 432 participants were selected through convenience sampling. Data were collected using the Collins and Read (1990) Attachment Styles Questionnaire, the Interpersonal Emotion Regulation Questionnaire by Hofmann et al. (2016), and the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (2002). Data analysis was conducted using Structural Equation Modeling in AMOS and SPSS version 27. The results indicated that anxious attachment style had a significant positive effect on psychological distress (β = 0.184, p ≤ 0.01), while the closeness attachment style had a significant negative effect on psychological distress (β = -0.275, p ≤ 0.01). However, the dependency attachment style did not show a significant direct effect. Furthermore, the mediating role of interpersonal emotion regulation in the relationship between all three attachment styles and psychological distress was not significant. These findings suggest that the quality of genuine intimate relationships and intrapersonal emotion regulation strategies play a more important role in reducing psychological distress than merely relying on interpersonal emotion regulation strategies. The study emphasizes the necessity of fostering secure attachment styles and enhancing emotion regulation skills in psychological interventions for university students.

References:

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