Psychological Development and Education ›› 2025, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (2): 196-205.doi: 10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2025.02.05

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The Influence of Attachment on Self-esteem and Interpersonal Adjustment in College Students

LIAO Chenxi1,2, WANG Dahua1   

  1. 1. Institute of Developmental Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875;
    2. Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200030
  • Published:2025-03-17

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Abstract: Previous studies have proved that attachment can affect interpersonal adjustment. This study explored the mechanism of attachment affecting interpersonal adjustment from the perspective of self-esteem. In study 1, with 271 college students recruited, questionnaires were used to investigate the mediating role of self-esteem in the relationship of attachment and interpersonal adjustment. The results showed that attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance significantly predicted interpersonal adjustment respectively, and the mediating effects of self-esteem were both significant; analysis of structural equation model with all variables revealed the significant mediating effect of self-esteem between attachment avoidance and interpersonal adjustment. In study 2, taking 63 college students as subjects, the laboratory priming paradigm was used to explore the effect of attachment security priming on state self-esteem and interpersonal adjustment in real interpersonal interaction scenario and compare the differences of interpersonal adjustment scores between different evaluation subjects. The results showed that state self-esteem in the attachment security priming group was marginally significantly higher than that in the control group; attachment security priming can improve the score of self-reported interpersonal adjustment, but not the score evaluated by others.

Key words: attachment, interpersonal adjustment, self-esteem, attachment security priming, college students

CLC Number: 

  • B844
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