The well-established relationship between adult attachment styles and mindfulness have been ascertained to greatly affect the emotional wellbeing of individuals. The extensive body of literature supporting Attachment Theory demonstrates that the type of attachment formed in childhood creates an internal working model that regulates how an individual can appropriately manage stressful situations and their psychological wellbeing. The present study aimed to expand on this wealth of literature, by investigating whether attachment and mindfulness could influence university students’ academic motivation and academic self-efficacy.
Furthermore, it aimed to build on the growing body of literature surrounding the more recently acknowledged dimension of disorganised attachment. It was hypothesised that adult attachment styles would significantly predict academic motivation and self-efficacy, and that mindfulness would mediate this relationship. A sample of 234 university undergraduate students completed an online questionnaire assessing their levels of attachment insecurity, disorganised attachment, dispositional mindfulness, academic motivation and self-efficacy. The results demonstrated a significant correlation between attachment dimensions and both motivation and self-efficacy. However, not all attachment styles were significant predictors of these variables. None of the attachment styles significantly predicted academic motivation in this study. Moreover, additional data analysis found that only two facets of mindfulness significantly mediated the relationship between attachment insecurity and academic self-efficacy. Nonetheless, this study could have important implications for the development of mindfulness programmes in universities, in order to improve student wellbeing. Limitations, and the impact of COVID-19, should be considered when interpreting results of the present study. Future directions for potential research are discussed.
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