Attachment, Intimate Relationship and Life Satisfaction Among University Students

Abstract

The focus of the current study was to determine the association between attachment, intimate relationship and life satisfaction among university students. In the current research it was hypothesized that i) there would be significant positive relationship between attachment and intimate relationship, ii) there would be significant positive relationship between attachment and life satisfaction, iii) there would be significant gender difference in terms of all three variables and iv) there would be significant effect of pertinent demographic variable on these three variables. A sample of 241 participants (men = 110 and women = 131) in age range from 19-25 were selected as the test sample. Attachment, intimate relationships and life satisfaction of students were assessed by using Adult Attachment (Scale Hazen & Shaver 1987) , Intimate Relationship Scale (Gulzar & Mehmood, 2018) and The Satisfaction with Life Scale (Pavot and Diener, 2008). Results indicated that attachment and life satisfaction have significantly positive correlation with intimate relationships. Moreover, Secure attachment has significant positive correlation with life satisfaction while ambivalent and avoidant are negatively correlated with life satisfaction, which means people with secure attachment are satisfied with their life, while those who have avoidant and ambivalent attachment their satisfaction with life is poor. It is also concluded that secure attachment has positive correlation with intimate relationship and avoidant and ambivalent attachment have negative relationship with intimate relationship. Moreover, intimacy in relation has strong positive relationship with secure attachment while negative with conflict in attachment, which represents that people having secure attachment, their intimate relations are better and they have high intimacy in relation where as their conflict in relations are really low. Whereas avoidant and ambivalent attachment have negative association with intimate relationship and intimacy in relation whereas positive relation with conflict in relation, this demonstrates that ix individuals having avoidant and ambivalent attachment have low level of intimacy in their intimate relationships where they have high conflict in their relations.