Mattering, Insecure Attachment, Rumination, and Self-Criticism in Distress Among University Students

The current study sought to illustrate the vulnerability of people who feel like they do not matter by uniquely examining the extent to which feelings of not mattering are associated with insecure attachment styles, rumination, facets of self-criticism, and depression. Analyses of data from a cross-sectional sample of 247 university students established that mattering was associated negatively with insecure attachment and ruminative brooding and with multiple facets of self-criticism, including self-hate. As expected, depression was associated negatively with mattering. Depression was also linked with insecure attachment, rumination, and self-criticism. A regression analysis showed that mattering uniquely predicted depression after taking into account the variance explained by insecure attachment, rumination, and self-criticism. Additionally, rumination mediated the link between low mattering and depression. Our findings highlight the need to consider mattering as a potentially unique vulnerability among distressed students that involves a salient cognitive element and an internalized negative self-view that can potentiate self-criticism and self-hate. Collectively, our results also underscore the need for interventions targeting the sense of not mattering to others among emerging adults.