The purpose of this study was to investigate the Relationships among Attachment with Parents, Self-Differentiation, and Fear of Intimacy. Specifically, this study was to find the differences of attachment with parents, self-differentiation and fear of...
The purpose of this study was to investigate the Relationships among Attachment with Parents, Self-Differentiation, and Fear of Intimacy. Specifically, this study was to find the differences of attachment with parents, self-differentiation and fear of intimacy according to student's general characteristics, to investigate the correlations among attachment with parents, self-differentiation and fear of intimacy, and to analyze the effect of related variables on fear of intimacy.
The participants of the present study were 187 male students and 159 female college students. The data were collected by self-administered questionnaire method. Self-differentiation included five subscales such as emotional reactivity, I-position, emotional fusion, emotional cutoff, and fusion with others.
The major results of this research were as follows.
First, there were significant differences in the level of attachment with parents across parents' marital statue, living standard and father's education level.
Second, there were significant differences in the level of self-differentiation across sex, age, parents' marital statue, standard of living and parental education level.
Third, there was significant positive correlation between the level of attachment with parents and self-differentiation, indicating that the greater the level of attachment with parents, the higher the level of self-differentiation.
Fourth, fear of intimacy was negatively correlation with parental attachment and self-differentiation, showing that the greater the level of fear of intimacy, the lower the lever of attachment with parents and self-differentiation.
Finally, multiple regression analysis were performed to attachment with parents and self-differentiation. It was found that emotional cutoff was the most powerful predictor of fear of intimacy.