Characteristics Of College Students' Parental Attachment And Its Effects On College Adjustment

College was important intermediate station and training base through which college students went from family to society and from dependence to autonomy, so college adjustment was crucial to future development of the students. The attachment theory claimed that early attachment experiences (usually that's parental attachment) were the basis of individual personality development and sociality development, and that the quality of parental attachment affected personal adjustment and development perpetually and diffusely. According to internal working model theory of attachment, the parental attachment experiences were interlized and then generalized as internal working models with regard to self and others just mainly through the medium of which parental attachment affected adjustment tperpetually; furthermore, parents were still the most important attachment figures and sources of support for college students. So it could be expected that parental attachment had significant effects on college adjustment. Many foreign researches indicated that parental attachment had positive effects on college adjustment, and that high-quality parental attachment could predict finer college adjustment and vice versa. Though foreign researches had verified the effects of parental attachment on college adjustment empirically, there were following limitations: (1) Not only hadn't the conventional parental attachment scales integrally covered connotations of parental attachment, but also had many differences in dimensions of attachment; (2) There were few concerns on empirically demonstration and application of the internal working model theory which was fundamental principle of attachment theory; (3) There were much more simple correlation researches and much less multivariable comprehensive researches, and explorations of mediating effect mechanism between parental attachment and college adjustment were much rare. Analogously in school adjustment research area, there were much more simple correlation researches and much less multivariable comprehensive researches, and there were no integrated and systemic angles of view to assemble so many influence factors such as family factors, personality characteristics, self-concept, interpersonal relationship, coping style and so on. Moreover, so far there was no research on correlation of parental attachment and college adjustment in china. In view of these facts, the present study was aimed at Chinese college student, explored the dimensions of parental attachment of college student, and testified the internal working model theory rudimentarily, and on the basis of the above works, constructed a relation model concerning effect mechanism of parental attachment on college adjustment.According to attachment theory, early attachment relationships were archetypes of future interpersonal relations, and the quality of parental attachment could predict children's interpersonal competence and perceived social support. As well in the theories and researches of personal adjustment, interpersonal competence and perceived social support were regarded as important influence factors of interpersonal adaptation and then other aspects of adjustment such as somatopsychic adaptation. Moreover, developing autonomy was one of most important development duties for adolescence and collge students, the level of which had extensive and significant effects on personal adjustment. Though attachment theory claimed that parental attachment of high quality could afford powerful supports for healthy autonomy development, so far that was an open question in the empirical researches. In view of the importance of autonomy, interpersonal competence and perceived social support to personal adjustment, the present study used the three variables as exemplifications and testified the internal working model theory of attachment, and then inspected their mediating effects between parental attachment and college adjustment.The present study mainly consisted of six parts. Part I explored the main dimensions of parental attachment of college student and compiled parental attachment scale, being based upon the core features of attachment(proximity maintenance, separation distress, safe haven, and secure base), and using opening survey at same time. Part II inspected the total level of college students' parental attachment, the distribution of attachment styles, and the possible differences in parental attachment on such factors as sex, college type, grade, discipline, parental educational level, homeplace, and economic condition of family. Part III, to meet the need of the present study, compiled concise college adjustment scale which consisted of academic adaptation, interpersonal adaptation and somatopsychic adaptation. Part IV inspected the total level of college adjustment and the possible differences in adjustment on such factors as sex, college type, grade, discipline, parental educational level, homeplace, and economic condition of family. Part V analyzed the correlations between parental attachment and such variables as self-esteem(representing models of self), trust in others(representing models of others), autonomy, interpersonal competence, and perceived social support, and then, using structural equation model, constructed and testified relation models concerning effects of parental attachment on autonomy, interpersonal competence, and perceived social support through the medium of self-esteem and trust in others, so as to examine the internal working model theory. Part VI analyzed the correlations between college adjustment and such variables as parental attachment, self-esteem, trust in others, autonomy, interpersonal competence, and perceived social support, and then, using structural equation model, constructed and testified relation models concerning effects of parental attachment on college adjustment through the medium of self-esteem, trust in others, autonomy, interpersonal competence, and perceived social support. The following conclusions were drawn from the above six parts:1. The reliability and validity of College Student Parental Attachment Questionnaire are fine, and parental attachment of college student mainly includes two dimensions, namely "attachment intimacy" and "attachment autonomy".2. Parental attachment of college student shows significant sex differences: Female are more intimate with parents, and more dependant on parents than male; female are more intimate with mother and more dependant on mother than father; male are more intimate with mother than father, but there are no significant differences in attachment autonomy between mother-child relationship and father-child relationship.3. Parental attachment shows no significant grade differences, indicating that parental attachment is not affected by maturing during college stage.4. The higher the social status of family (including parental educational level, economic condition of family, and differences between city and countryside) is, the higher the level of parental attachment is.5. The reliability and validity of College Adjustment Questionnaire are fine, and the questionnaire can be used to measure academic adaptation, interpersonal adaptation and somatopsychic adaptation of college student.6. The college adjustment is fine in the mass, but 6.6%, 13.8%, 4.3%, and 9.9% of students show severe maladjustment in academic motivation, academic pressure, interpersonal adaptation and somatopsychic adaptation respectively, which merits attention.7. College adjustment shows no significant sex differences.8. The level of college adjustment of grade one is significantly higher than other three grades, which indicates that the environment and quality of higher education merit attention.9. The higher the social status of family (including parental educational level, economic condition of family, and differences between city and countryside) is, the better the college adjustment is.10. Parental attachment can positively predict self-esteem, trust in others, autonomy, interpersonal competence and perceived social support; self-esteem and trust in others can positively predict autonomy, interpersonal competence and perceived social support; parental attachment affects autonomy, interpersonal competence and perceived social support partly through the medium of self-esteem and trust in others, and the mediating effects of self-esteem are significant greater than trust in others; the above outcomes support internal working model theory which claims that the perpetual and diffuse effects of attachment on personal adjustment and development are mainly through the medium of internal working models.11. Parental attachment, self-esteem, trust in others, autonomy, interpersonal competence, and perceived social support can positively predict college adjustment; parental attachment affects college adjustment first through the medium of self-esteem and trust in others (representing internal working models) and then through the medium of autonomy, interpersonal competence and perceived social support; in the effects of parental attachment on college adjustment, the mediating effects of self-esteem are greater than trust in others, and the mediating effects of autonomy are greater than interpersonal competence and perceived social support, so the conclusion can be drawn that autonomy is the primary mediator for effects of parental attachment and self-esteem on college adjustment.In general, the theoretical contributions of the present study mainly included three aspects as follows. Firstly, from the core features of attachment, the study found that college students' parental attachment mainly consisted of two relatively stable dimensions, namely "attachment intimacy" and "attachment autonomy" which were isostructural with relevant findings of foreign romantic attachment researches and among which "attachment autonomy" was great seldomly concerned by foreign parental attachment scales. Secondly, the internal working model theory of attachment was testified in a sample of Chinese college students, and the outcomes supported the proposition that parental attachment affected personal adjustment through the medium of internal working models (represented by self-esteem and trust in others in the present study). Thirdly, just in the framework of attachment theory, such influencing factors of college adjustment as parental attachment, self-esteem, trust in others, autonomy, interpersonal competence, and perceived social support were inspected integrally, and multivariable relation model concerning effects of parental attachment on colloge adjustment was constructed, which expanded and deepened both attachment researches and school adjustment researches.