Relationship between Attachment Style and Mental Health in Adult Survivors of the Bam Earthquake

This study was aimed to determine the relationship between attachment Style and mental health in adult survivors in the earthquake stricken regions of the city of Bam. It also aimed to determine the contribution of predictor variables in predicting the criterion variable. This research was a descriptive ex post facto study and a one-shot cross sectional research. 314 adults (138 male and 176 female) survivors of the Bam earthquake were selected through voluntary convenient sampling and participated in this research. All subjects completed the Adult Attachment Inventory (AAI), the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28), and the Demographic Inventory. Stepwise multiple regression analysis was used for statistical analysis. Results demonstrated that there is a positive significant correlation between secure attachment style and mental health and a negative significant correlation among avoidant and ambivalent attachment styles with mental health. In addition results suggest that secure attachment style, avoidant attachment style and ambivalent attachment style are able to significantly predict mental health. In this research, secure attachment style was the best predictor of mental health. The findings confirm the role of attachment style in preserving and promoting mental health in earthquake survivors. Moreover, results imply that these three attachment styles are able to explain a considerable part of mental health variation in adverse conditions.