The Role of Attachment Styles and Perfectionism in Predicting of Student's Mental Health

Freshman students are exposed to a variety of psychological problems and disorders. Many factors can have an impact on their mental health. This study was conducted to investigate the role of attachment styles and perfectionism in predicting mental health in the freshman students. In this descriptive-analytic study, the population was all freshman students of Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences in 2013-2014 academic years (540 students). 481 students (160 male and 321 female) responded to Questioners. The Collins & Read Attachment Style Scale, General Health Questioner (GHQ) and Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (FMPS) were used to collect the data. To analyze the data, descriptive statistics and inferential statistics (Pearson correlation, and step-wise regression) was used. The results showed that there is a negative significant correlation between mental health with Personal Standards (P<0.01) and Organization (P<0.05). Moreover, a significant but negative correlation was found to exist between the mental health and Anxious Attachment Style (P<0.01). Finally, regression analysis showed that Anxious Attachment Style, Concern over Mistakes, Personal Standards and Parental Criticism, can predict mental health significantly in freshman students. Considering the fact that some factors such as Attachment Styles and Perfectionism affects the mental health level of freshman students; therefore, interventions which could target these factors could increase these students’ mental health.