AUTHOR=Fang Fang , Wang Jingwen 

TITLE=The relationship between attachment and depression among college students: the mediating role of perfectionism

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=15

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1352094

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1352094

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=<sec id="sec1"><title>Objectives</title><p>Explore the relationship between adult attachment and depression among college students, and the mechanism of perfectionism.</p></sec><sec id="sec2"><title>Study design</title><p>Questionnaire survey.</p></sec><sec id="sec3"><title>Methods</title><p>A questionnaire survey was conducted nationwide, totally 313 valid questionnaires were received. The survey collected information such as adult attachment (Adult Attachment Scale, AAS), depression (The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, CESD), and perfectionism (The Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale, FMPS). Then used SPSS26.0 to analyze the collected data.</p></sec><sec id="sec4"><title>Results</title><p>There were significant differences in perfectionism and depression between secure attachment and insecure attachment in college students. Perfectionism plays a partial mediating role in the relationship between the close-depend composite dimension, anxiety dimension of attachment and depression.</p></sec><sec id="sec5"><title>Conclusion</title><p>The closeness-dependence dimension of attachment significantly and negatively predicted perfectionism and depression; the anxiety dimension of attachment significantly and positively predicted perfectionism and depression; and perfectionism partially mediated the effect of both the closeness-dependence dimension of attachment on depression and the anxiety dimension of attachment on depression. Attachment can directly affect college students’ depression, but also indirectly through perfectionism.</p></sec>