The Influence of Family-of-Origin Functioning on Fear-of-Intimacy: The Mediating Effect of Adult Attachment

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the mediating effect of the adult attachment in the relationship between the family of origin functioning and fear of intimacy. Data were collected through a questionnaire from 557 university students in the Jeollabuk-do of South Korea. The collected data were analyzed by basic descriptive statistics, Pearson’s correlations and multiple regression analysis. Baron and Kenny’s method was used and examined, and the Sobel test was performed to determine the mediating model’s significance. It was adapted to SPSS ver. 18.0 for Windows. The major findings were as follows: first, the functioning of family-of-origin was negatively related to the fear of intimacy. In addition, younger students and students with less past dating experience were more likely to fear of intimacy. Second, fear of intimacy was influenced by the family-of-origin through the intermediate effect of attachment avoidance and attachment anxiety. Attachment avoidance and attachment anxiety had partial mediating effects on the relationship between family-of-origin functioning and the fear of intimacy. That is, family-of-origin functioning was shown to have not only a direct effect, but also an indirect effect through attachment avoidance and attachment anxiety, on the fear of intimacy. The results of this study suggest that the importance of family-of-origin functioning in order to improve Korean college students’ intimacy abilities. Keywords: family-of-origin functioning, fear of intimacy, adult attachment