The Relationship Between Attachment Styles with Positive and Negative Affect in the Elderly: The Mediating Role of Reminiscence Styles

The current study aims to investigate the relationship between attachment styles with positive and negative affect through the mediating role of reminiscence styles in the elderly. This was a correlational study of structural equations modeling (SEM) type. The statistical population included all the elderly aged at least 60 years living in Hamedan province, Iran, among whom 400 (210 men and 190 women) were selected using convenience sampling method. Participants filled out the Collins’s Adult Attachment Styles, Oxford Happiness, and Amani et al.’s Reminiscence Styles questionnaires. The results of SEM revealed that the hypothetical model of this study has a good fit in the study sample. As such, secure attachment style had a positive direct relationship with positive reminiscence (PR), and a negative direct relationship with negative reminiscence (NR). Avoidant and ambivalent attachment styles had only a positive direct relationship with NR. In addition, PR had a positive and negative direct relationship with positive and negative affect, respectively, and NR had a negative and positive direct relationship with positive and negative emotions, respectively. Secure attachment style also indicated an indirect relationship with positive and negative affect through both positive and NR. However, avoidant and ambivalent attachment styles were indirectly related to positive and negative affect only through NR. The findings emphasize the significance of the development of internal working models based on the kind of parent-child’s reminiscences and narratives, and the lifelong effects of these models.