The Relationship Attachment Styles with Self-Coherence and Generativity in the Elderly: The Mediating Role of Basic Psychological Needs

According to the ever-increasing number of the elderly in Iranian society, paying attention to improving the quality of life of this group is of particular importance. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between attachment styles with self-coherence and generativity through the mediating role of the basic psychological needs in Iranian elderly. The research method was descriptive-correlational of path analysis type. The statistical population included all the elderly living in Tehran, Iran, among whom 170 were selected using convenience sampling method. The research instruments included the Loyola’s Creativity, Antonovsky's psychological coherence, Collins and Reed’s attachment styles, and the Desi and Ryan’s basic psychological needs questionnaires. The results showed that the hypothesized model has a good fit in the study sample. The results showed that secure attachment style has a positive relationship with all three needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness. Avoidant attachment style had a negative significant relationship with competence, and ambivalent attachment style had a negative significant relationship with the autonomy and competence needs as well as self-coherence. In addition, there was a positive significant relationship between the needs of autonomy and competence with generativity. Finally, the autonomy need plays a mediating role in the relationship between secure and ambivalent attachment styles with generativity, and the competence need plays a mediating role in the relationship between all three styles of attachment with generativity. Consequently, given the importance of attachment styles and basic psychological needs, psychologists can take a step forward to increase the quality of life of the elderly through relying on these two variables and trying to improve them in the elderly and performing interventions and treatments for them.