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APP| Published By AEIRC| https://doi.org/10.29052/2412-3188.v8.i2.2021.76-85 

 
 
Original Article                                                                                  

Can attachment styles predict psychological 
and emotional well-being? 
Shahana Masood & Saima Masoom Ali 
Department of Psychology. University of Karachi 
 

Abstract 
Background: Attachment is an intangible form of sharing love, concerns, and 
emotion between two individuals or sometimes in terms of society. Attachment 
styles with an individual's parents, peers, or loved ones greatly affect an 
individual's different domains of life. Many studies have been conducted to 
identify the relationship of attachment styles and personality traits, physical and 
mental health. However, a few kinds of research have focused on the relationship 
of attachment styles with well-being. Therefore, the main objective of the research 
was to assess whether attachment style can predict psychological and emotional 
well-being. 
Methodology: The study required a sample of 300 students from different public 
and private universities in Karachi. Measures used in the study are The 
Relationships Questionnaire (RQ) and Mental Health Continuum-Short Form 
(MHC-SF). The Relationships Questionnaire (RQ) was used to assess the 
attachment style, and the Mental Health Continuum-Short Form (MHC-SF) was 
used in the study to assess psychological and emotional wellbeing, items related 
to a specific variable used in the study were included in the assessment. Data were 
analyzed through regression analysis which is an inferential statistical test using 
SPSS version 24. 
Results: Results were not as per the assumption of the study hypotheses; there was 
no significant effect of attachment styles on psychological and emotional 
wellbeing. 
Conclusion: Hence, results indicated that attachment style alone could not be 
considered a good predictor of psychological and emotional well-being. It only has 
a minor effect, but for the prediction of psychological and emotional wellbeing, 
other mediating variables and personality factors should also be assessed or 
considered.   
 

Keywords 
Attachment Styles, Psychological Well-Being, Emotional Well-Being. 

 

 

 

 

Citation: Masood S, Ali SM. Can 
attachment styles predict psychological 
and emotional well-being? APP. 2021;8(2): 
76-85 
 
Corresponding Author Email: 
smh_hashmi@yahoo.com 
 
DOI: 10.29052/2412-3188.v8.i2.2021.76-85 
 
Received 18/08/2021 
 
Accepted 04/12/2021 
 
Published 01/12/2021 
 
Copyright © The Author(s). 2021 This is 
an open access article distributed under 
the terms of the Creative Commons 
Attribution 4.0 International License, 
which permits unrestricted use, 
distribution, and reproduction in any 
medium, provided the original author 
and source are credited.  
 

 

Funding: The author(s) received no 
specific funding for this work. 

Conflicts of Interests: The authors have 
declared that no competing interests 
exist. 
 

https://doi.org/10.29052/2412-3188.v8.i2.2021.71
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)


 

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Introduction  
Attachment is an intangible form of sharing 
love, concerns, and emotion between two 
individuals or sometimes in terms of society. 
This enlightens the particular behaviors in 
children; attachment allows children to 
express their feelings of fear and disturbance 
with the one they trust and who can bring 
them out of the difficult situation1. For the 
first time, the theory on attachment was 
given by a psychoanalyst named John 
Bowlby; he wanted to know about the 
distress felt by infants on being away from 
their parents. John Bowlby came up with the 
theory of maternal deprivation, which stated 
that in the absence of a mother, a child feels 
insecure. This theory further continues to the 
theory of attachment and then came an 
experiment on attachment by Harlow and 
Zimmerman. This experiment was 
conducted with monkeys and their mothers, 
and monkeys were put in a cage with 
surrogate mothers and separated from their 
mothers. Two mothers were situated in the 
cage; one was prepared with a cloth that 
gave warmth and comfort to the child, and 
the other was made of wire, but that mother 
was able to feed the child. The child 
preferred a mother who was made of cloth 
rather than a wired mother because they 
wanted comfort more than a need for food2. 
Based on this experiment, Bowlby gave the 
attachment theory by stating that a child 
needs an emotional bond with the caregiver 
instead of contacting the mother only for 
food; a relationship between mother and 
child is greater than the need for food3. As 
individuals develop, their attachment-
related functions are shifted from parents to 
friends or loved ones4.  
 
Attachment styles Bowlby specified are; 
anxious resistant insecure, secure, 
disorganized/disoriented attachment, and 
anxious-avoidant insecure attachment. 
Looking at secure attachment, it states that 

children feel comfortable in the presence of a 
mother, and even if a mother leaves them, 
they have developed a faith in the mother 
that she will return for them. The anxious-
avoidant insecure attachment explains that 
child feels anxiety they have not developed 
trust in their mother that she will fulfill their 
need, and the child becomes emotionally 
distant. Anxious resistant insecure 
attachment style is developed when a 
mother is responsive at times and 
unresponsive at another; the child feels 
anger and helplessness. The 
disorganized/Disoriented attachment style 
indicates that children who have this style 
show anger, depression, passivity, and 
apathetic behavior, all of this happens 
because their mothers behave passively, and 
at times their mothers are scared5. According 
to the findings of Hazen and Shave, the same 
type of attachment differences is found in 
children and adults, and attachment models 
help shape and guide the behavior of close 
relationships in whole life4.  
 
According to Bowlby emotional life of an 
adult is affected by attachment relationships, 
and he considers attachment to be a major 
element of the experience of humans "from 
the cradle to the grave"6. It has been 
suggested in many studies that lonely adults 
were found to have trouble relationships 
with their parents in childhood and either 
distant or involved type of relationship with 
their partners; it estimated that history of 
attachment has an impact on the form and 
frequency of loneliness in adult4. It has been 
observed in a study that a bond between 
pairs or romantic love has the same step of 
attachment which is found between an 
infant and an adult. Hazen & Shaver started 
working on the romantic attachment, which 
was based on three categories of attachment 
by Ainsworth to understand how adults feel, 
think and behave in a romantic relationship 
and they came up with a short multi-
sentence depiction of the types of attachment 



 

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as each individual is experiencing them 
which are;7 Secure; "I find it relatively easy to 
get close to others and am comfortable 
depending on them and having them 
depend on me. I don't worry about being 
abandoned or about someone getting too 
close to me"8. Avoidant; "I  am somewhat 
uncomfortable being close to others; I find it 
difficult to trust them completely,  difficult to 
allow myself to depend on them. I am 
nervous when anyone gets too close, and 
often, others want me to be more intimate 
than I feel comfortable being"9. Anxious-
Ambivalent "I find that others are reluctant 
to get as close as I would like.  I often worry 
that my partner doesn't love me or won't 
want to stay with me.  I want to get very 
close to my partner, and this sometimes 
scares people away"4. 
 
Past researches demonstrate that there is a 
connection of attachment style with 
wellbeing. As per the historical background 
of well-being, it was defined by two 
approaches; a hedonic tradition which is 
comprised of constructs such as satisfaction 
with life, positive affect, happiness, and low 
negative affect10 the other one is a eudemonic 
tradition which focuses on human 
development and positive psychological 
functioning11. According to Keyes, mental 
health is a syndrome of well-being 
symptoms12. As per Keyes, mental health 
originates "when an individual exhibits a 
higher level of at least one symptom of 
hedonic and at least half level of eudaimonia 
i.e., positive functioning in life"13.  
 
Although there are different approaches to 
well-being, researchers consider well-being 
to be a multidimensional construct14. A 
proper definition of well-being that is still 
being used in literature15 is given by Shin 
and Johnson, which is “a global assessment 
of a person’s quality of life according to his 
own chosen criteria”16.  
 

Ryff worked on the concept of psychological 
well-being, which is comprised of six 
dimensions of psychological functioning; 
autonomy, positive relationships with 
others, environmental mastery, a realization 
of potential, purpose in life, and self-
acceptance17. Emotional well-being is 
defined as "A positive sense of well-being 
enables an individual to be able to function 
in society and meet the demands of everyday 
life; people in good mental health can 
recover effectively from illness, change or 
misfortune"7.  
 
Attachment Styles and Psychological 
Wellbeing 
Mental health can be predicted by 
attachment styles18. It was reported that 
relations with incompatible, doubtful, or 
unkind persons might have an impact on the 
development of secure and established 
mental health. The insecure attachment 
lowers the flexibility to tackle stressful life 
events and influences a person to break 
down psychologically in crisis moments. 
Insecure attachment can therefore be 
observed as a general weakness to mental 
disorders, with the specificity of genetics, 
developmental, and environmental factors19.  
 
Many studies suggested contemporary 
relations between insecure attachment and 
psychopathology in adolescence and 
adulthood20. In a ten years longitudinal 
study, it was found that insecure parent-
adolescent attachment had more 
psychopathological symptoms in adulthood 
than secure attachment. Therefore, it may be 
assumed that attachment insecurity for 
parents remains related to the 
psychopathology symptoms in adulthood. It 
was also found that subjects with insecure 
attachment do not deal practically and 
productively in stressful situations; rather, 
they focus on self-blame, ruminative 
thoughts, and feelings of helplessness21. 
These features can intensify one's negative 



 

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emotional experience, leading to symptoms 
of psychopathology experienced in 
adulthood22.   
 
Greenberg conducted a study on 161 adults 
diagnosed with bipolar disorder predicted 
that individuals who had insecure 
attachment styles were found to show 
symptoms of depression and their 
psychosocial functioning was poorest, 
whereas those individuals had better 
psychological functioning and low 
depression whose attachment style was 
secure23. According to Palitsky et al., People 
who have an insecure attachment style are 
prone to having suicidal ideation or attempt 
suicide and also reported to have other 
categories of mental health disorders, while 
those who have a secure attachment style 
report decreased levels of suicidal ideation 
and suicidal attempt and anxiety disorders24.   
 
Attachment Styles & Emotional Wellbeing 
Attachment experiences play an essential 
role in emotional development25. There is an 
absence of successful emotion regulation in 
insecure children. At the early childhood age 
of 4 months, children of insensitive mothers 
have poorly regulated emotions as 
compared to children with sensitive 
mothers26.   
 
A review included studies done with middle 
school kids and adolescents that suggest that 
secure attachment is linked with each 
emotional domain’s adaptive functioning27. 
Pascuzzo et al. did a longitudinal study with 
adolescents till their adulthood, that is 
measure was filled by the participants at age 
14 and then at age 24, which states that 
anxious romantic attachment or parent-child 
attachment is linked with psychopathology 
and this relationship is mediated by 
emotion-focused strategies28.  
 
Research is done with patients of Cerebral 
Autosomal Dominant Arteriopathy with 

Subcortical Infarcts, and 
Leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL), 
Huntington's Disease (HD), and Hereditary 
Cerebral Hemorrhage with Amyloidosis - 
Dutch type (HCHWA-D) propose that 
attachment anxiety is related to distress and 
it has been predicted that distress remains 
even after 2 months of feeling attachment 
anxiety and catastrophizing29. 
 
Rationale 
Attachment styles play an important role in 
every step of life, from infancy till old age. 
When a child is born, he is attached to 
parents only then attachment circle 
gradually grows from parents to peers, and 
with the growth of an individual attachment, 
the circle keeps expanding. Therefore, a lot 
of researches have been conducted to 
understand the impact of attachment styles 
on an individual.  
 
The main purpose of researching this topic is 
to focus on the mental well-being of an 
individual. Checking the impact of 
attachment style on well-being is necessary. 
For leading a happy and better life, well-
being is considered important because if a 
person will not take care of his psychological 
and emotional health, life is disturbed, and 
the survival of such people would be 
difficult. Results of this study would able to 
be used as a guide for the parents, peers, or 
loved ones so that they can form a type of 
attachment style with their partners so that 
they would develop any psychosocial and 
emotional issues. 
 
Significance of Topic 
Conducting this study is important because 
once an individual knows what type of 
attachment would lead to a better lifestyle. 
Then parents of newborn babies would work 
on establishing such type of attachment 
pattern with their child who would be 
helpful in the mental development and 
growth of a child. Identifying the impact of 



 

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attachment style would benefit clinicians as 
well as they would work on interventions for 
the clients who have disturbed attachment 
patterns, and clinicians would already know 
which style leads to which type of issues, 
such as mentioned in past literature that 
insecure attachment style can harm health 
and wellbeing. 
 
Therefore, the main objective of the research 
was to assess whether attachment style can 
predict psychological and emotional well-
being. 
 

Methodology 
This was a survey based prospective, cross-
sectional study. Participants between the 
ages range 18-35 years, i.e., young adults, 
were selected through convenient and 
purposive sampling from different public 
and private universities of Karachi.  
 
Sample 
The sample of the participants is comprised 
of 300 students. Participants were selected 
from different private and public 
universities in Karachi. The age range of the 
sample size was between 18-35 years. 
 
Sampling Technique 
The sample was selected via non-probability 
sampling techniques, purposive and 
convenient sampling method, from different 
universities of Karachi.  
 
Sample Size 
The sample size was decided by keeping in 
view past studies' sample size. Two public 
sector universities and three private sector 
universities were visited for data collection. 
 
Exclusion Criteria 

 University students enrolled in the 
private study program are enrolled for 
exams only and do not take regular 
classes at the university. 

 Students above the range of 18-35 years 
of age were excluded from the study, as 
this study only includes those who come 
under young adulthood. 

 
Inclusion Criteria 

 University students enrolled in the 
universities of Karachi. 

 Students between the age ranges of 18-35 
years, i.e., young adults, were included 
in the study. 
 

Informed Consent Form 
Before taking part in the study, participants 
were informed through a consent form by 
which they were able to know what this 
study is all about and make their decision 
accordingly to participate in the study. 
Informed consent briefed them about the 
purpose of the study and regarding their 
rights of participation in the study. 
 
Measures 
Following measures were used in the study:  
 
 
 
Demographics Form 
Demographics form is based on information 
of the participants, which includes age, 
gender, weight, height, university. This 
information of the participant helped 
analyze the results of the study in detail.  
 
The Relationships Questionnaire (RQ) 
It was developed in 1991 by Bartholomew 
and Horowitz. The questionnaire measures 
adult attachment style. It has four statements 
that identify four dimensions of attachment; 
securely attached, fearful-avoidant, 
preoccupied, and dismissive-avoidant8. 
Participants are asked to tick in front of the 
one or more out of four sentences that 
describes them best; after this, they are 
supposed to rate themselves for every 4 
sentences on the basis of Likert scale ranging 



 

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from 1 (does not describe me at all) to 7 
(describes me exactly).  
 
Mental Health Continuum-Short  
Form (MHC-SF) 
MHC-SF measures emotional, 
psychological, and social wellbeing. The 
scale was developed by Keyes et al. in the 
year 2008. The original questionnaire 
consisted of 40 items; the short version has 
14 items and is known as MHC-SF. These 
items evaluate positive mental health and 
cover three dimensions which are emotional 
well-being, social well-being, and 
psychological well-being. Responses of the 
items are based on a six-point Likert scale 
which ranges from 0 (never) to 6 (every day). 
This test can be used with individuals of age 
12 years or older. The scale is considered to 
have high internal consistency, which is 
greater than .80, test-retest reliability, and 
discriminant validity. Approximation of 
test-retest reliability for four weeks are; 
emotional wellbeing (.64) and psychological 
wellbeing (.57). Items that were relevant to 
the variables of the study were included, and 
items that assessed social wellbeing were 
excluded. 

Procedure 
Different private and public sector 
universities were visited for data collection, 
and participants were asked to fill out the 
measures mentioned above. Any of the 
forms in which one or more items were left 
blank by the participants, that form was 
discarded and not included in the study. 
Questionnaires were given in the same 
sequence mentioned above in methodology 
to the participants after they agreed to 
participate voluntarily in the study.  
 
Statistical Analysis 

After the data collection procedure, data was 
analyzed on statistical software SPSS version 
24.0. A regression analysis test was used to 
assess the effect of attachment style on 
psychological and emotional wellbeing. 
 

Result 
Participants between the ages range 18-35 

years, i.e., young adults, were selected 

through convenient and purposive sampling 

from different public and private 

universities of Karachi.

  

Table 1: Effect of attachment styles on psychological wellbeing. 

 

Variable Β Beta t Sig. R R Square 

(Constant) 19.063  14.185 .000 .151 .023 

Style A .039 .011 .186 .853   

Style B -.296 -.085 -1.380 .169   

Style C .235 .066 1.082 .280   

Style D .416 .126 2.159 .032   

 

Table 1 indicates that around 2.3% of attachment styles can predict health behavior, which is very 

low; therefore, attachment styles cannot predict psychological well-being statistically. A p-value 

is greater than 0.05, which indicates that attachment styles (A, B, C, and D) are not good predictors 

of psychological wellbeing. 

 

 

 



 

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Table 2: Effect of attachment styles on emotional wellbeing. 

 

Variable β Beta t Sig. R R Square 

Constant 9.646  11.808 .000 .073 .005 

Style A .094 .044 .738 .461   

Style B -.141 -.067 -1.080 .281   

Style C .059 .027 .449 .654   

Style D .046 .023 .389 .697   

 

 

Table 2 indicates that around 0.5% of attachment styles can predict health behavior, which is very 

low; therefore, attachment styles cannot predict emotional well-being statistically. A p-value is 

greater than 0.05, which indicates that attachment styles (A, B, C, and D) are not good predictors 

of emotional wellbeing. 

 

Discussion 
The present study is aimed to examine the 
impact of attachment styles on psychological 
and emotional well-being. The result of the 
study did not prove the hypotheses which 
were; there would be a significant effect of 
attachment styles on psychological 
wellbeing, and there would be a significant 
effect of attachment styles on emotional 
wellbeing. 
 
It is estimated in the study results that 
attachment styles are not a significant 
predictor of psychological wellbeing. The 
relationship of attachment has been 
supported by previous researches30. Most of 
the researches has shed light on the 
perspective that other variables mediate the 
relationship between attachment and 
psychological wellbeing. It is highlighted in 
a study that when well-being is measured by 
considering depression, anxiety, and stress, 
it has a strong association with attachment 
style; people who had secure attachment 
style showed a low level of depression, 
anxiety, and stress as compared to those with 
insecure attachment style. It was also 
reported in the study that mindfulness acts 
as a moderator between attachment style 
and wellbeing. If an individual with an 

insecure attachment style is trained in 
mindfulness, he can learn to cope with a 
negative effect of attachment style31. Another 
study finding reports that gratitude act as a 
mediator between attachment and 
psychological wellbeing32.  
 
Study findings reported that attachment 
styles are not a significant predictor of 
emotional wellbeing, which is against the 
past findings. Research conducted with 
pregnant women observed that those with 
avoidant attachment style had lower 
emotional bonding with the fetus33, but in 
the case of pregnant women with anxious 
attachment style, it was observed that there 
was no association of emotional bonding and 
anxious attachment34 which is in support of 
the current study. It was observed in a study 
that individuals who have an avoidant 
attachment style face no difficulty in coping 
with threatening events by utilizing their 
emotional distancing35. 
 
If we discuss the limitation of the study, the 
first one is that it is a cross-sectional study, 
which itself is not considered ideal when 
trying to assess the impact of one variable on 
another. Longitudinal research is needed for 
the ultimate relationship. The sample of this 
study is not ethnically, racially, and 



 

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socioeconomically different, and the sample 
is based on the Pakistani population only. 
Another limitation of this study is that it 
cannot rule out the potential health effects of 
pre-existing physical diseases, mental 
disorders, or personality factors, nor can it 
assess whether these factors mediate the 
relationship between insecure attachment 
styles and poor wellbeing. 
 
Recommendations of the study are that if 

someone wants to work on the same topic, 

other mediating variables such as 

personality factors and health issues should 

also be assessed. A causal relationship 

between the variables should also be 

analyzed. A longitudinal study from 

childhood to the stage of young adulthood 

can be very helpful; personality factors and 

developmental factors playing a role in the 

impact of attachment on wellbeing will be 

assessed too. As attachment patterns, either 

adult attachment or child attachment, are 

still a topic that needs in-depth investigation 

because it's about human psychology, and it 

is hard to manipulate human behaviors and 

personality factors. In future studies, while 

conducting the study, physical health, 

medical conditions, and psychological 

disorders should also be one of the variables 

of the study. 

 

Conclusion 
The study found that attachment styles may 

influence the individual’s psychological and 

emotional well-being, but they are not 

enough as a predictor of mentioned 

behaviors. In line with previous studies, we 

may conclude that anxiously attached 

individuals may have poorer psychological 

wellbeing and irregular emotional strategies.  

 

 

 

Acknowledgment  
The authors would like to thank the 
participants of the study, without whom the 
study would not have been possible and also 
the research board for the approval. We are 
grateful to the Department of Psychology, 
the University of Karachi, for letting us work 
in this area.  
 

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