Why are they lonely? Perceived quality of early relationships with parents, attachment, personality predispositions and loneliness in first-year university students

Abstract

This study examined the association between perceived quality of early parental bonding and loneliness of first-year university students in relation to two central personality-related conceptualizations, attachment and Blatt’s (1990) primary personality predispositions. Participants were 146 undergraduate (69 males and 77 females), who completed the Parental Bonding Instrument, an attachment styles questionnaire, the Depressive Experiences Questionnaire, and the UCLA Loneliness Scale in the middle of their first-year at university. As expected, parental care and secure attachment were negatively associated with loneliness, whereas ambivalent and avoidant attachment and self-criticism were positively correlated with loneliness. Ambivalence and self-criticism mediated in part the association between parental care and loneliness; self-criticism mediated in part the association between ambivalence and loneliness, yet both ambivalence and self-criticism uniquely predicted loneliness. Results are discussed in light of the related yet distinct contributions of attachment and personality vulnerabilities to the experience of loneliness.