An Examination of Attachment Styles and Social Skills of University Students

Introduction. Attachment organization across the lifespan and across generations, long-term predictions from attachment organization to later psychosocial functioning, and the possibility of altering attachment organization with intervention suggest that attachment theory may potentially shed valuable light on adult social development and deviant behavior. In this article are planned that to examine social skills and attachment styles of university students in Turkey. Method. A sample of 343 university students completed measures of Relationships Scale Questionnaire and Social Skills Inventory. To analyze data, correlation analysis, and regression analysis were employed. Results. Result indicated that secure attachment and social skills are related on several significant dimensions. Regression analyses indicated that a significant effect of attachment styles on social skills was detected. There found positive significant relation between secure attachment style and emotional expressivity, emotional sensitivity, emotional control, social expressivity and social control scores. There found a negative relation between fearful attachment style scores and social control and emotional expressivity scores and a positive relation between fearful attachment style and social sensitivity scores. No significant relation was found between other attachment styles and social skills scores. It was found out that secure attachment style predicted emotional expressivity, emotional sensitivity, social expressivity, and social control skills. It was also found that fearful and dismissing attachment style predicted emotional sensitivity skill, and preoccupied attachment style predicted social control. Discussion and Conclusion. As a result of the study, there found a significant relation between attachment styles and social skills of students attending education faculty and it was determined that attachment styles predicted social skills. Considering this case, teacher trainees can be trained to raise their awareness about attachment styles and development of social skills. Especially, pre-school and elementary teacher candidates can be trained to set a good role model for their prospective students.