mother-infant attachment style as a predictor of depression among female students

Background & aim: a multitude of studies show an association between adult attachment styles and psychopathology. therefore, in this study, we investigated the relationship between attachment style and depression among students of bu-ali sina university, hamadan, iran. methods: to this end, 157 female students were randomly selected. data were obtained using a demographic form, adult attachment inventory (aai) (hazan and shaver), and beck depression inventory (bdi-ii). the data was analyzed by performing pearson product-moment correlation coefficient and regression analysis, using spss version 16. results: our findings indicated that secure attachment style had no significant correlation with depression, while anxious/ambivalent attachment style had significant positive correlation with depression (r=0.24, p<0.05), and avoidant attachment style had significant positive correlation with the participants’ depression (r=0.15, p<0.05). regression analysis reflected that attachment styles may predict depression. finally, anxious/ambivalent style had a significant positive effect on depression (p<0.05, β=0.24), such that with one unit increase in the standard deviation of the predicting variable (anxious/ambivalent style), standard deviation of the dependent variable (depression) increased by 0.24 units (p<0.05). conclusion: the results of the present study can promote understanding of attachment styles involved in the development of vulnerability to depression.