The Relationship Between Attachment Styles with Self-differentiation, Cognitive Flexibility and Marital Intimacy in Students

Attachment styles can explain many of the psychological traits such as self-differentiation, cognitive flexibility, and marital intimacy that warrant attention to this variable. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to determine the relationship between attachment styles with self-differentiation, cognitive flexibility and marital intimacy in married female students of Azad University. The research method was descriptive correlational. The statistical population of the study included all married female students of Islamic Azad University of Rasht. A sample of 300 people was selected as available and then the data were collected using the Adult Attachment Styles Questionnaires of Hazzan and Shaver (1987), Self-differentiation of Skorown and Friedlander (1998), Cognitive Flexibility Dennis and Vanderval (2010) and Walker, Skowronski & Thompson (2003) Marital Intimacy were collected. The data were analyzed using Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple regression. The findings showed that there is a positive relationship between self-differentiation and cognitive flexibility with secure attachment style and a significant negative correlation with avoidant and anxiety-ambivalent insecure attachment styles (P<0.05). Also, there is a positive and significant relationship between marital intimacy and secure attachment style and negative and ambivalent anxiety-insecure attachment style (P<0.01). Given the results and the importance of attachment styles in marital intimacy, it is suggested that more attention be paid to attachment styles at different ages in order to experience fewer problems in the future.