The Relationship Between Adult Attachment, The Capacity To Be Alone And Self-concept Clarity Of College Students

Self-concept clarity is a structure feature of self-concept,reflecting the degree of individual’s clear confidence in self-knowledge.And the clarity of self-concept is significant to college students who need to achieve the positive self identification and the development tasks of self integration.Individuals with higher levels of self-conceptual clarity will positively respond to stress,have clear goals and plans in life,and have higher capacities of self-management and self-regulation awareness.Positive solitude at college can help students to understand themselves better and complete development tasks.Attachment theory provides a framework for individuals to understand the inner model of self,while object relations theory clarifies the essence that the capacity to be alone is related to the secure attachment.Although previous studies have confirmed the relationship between adult attachment and self-concept clarity,but have not yet systematically studied the relationship between adult attachment and the capacity to be alone,and their role in self-concept clarity.To this end,this study will carry out research from the perspective of attachment theory and object relations theory to explore the relationship between adult attachment、the capacity to be alone and self-concept clarity.In this study,330 college students were selected as subjects,and a survey of questionnaires were conducted by using the experiences ofintimacy scale,the capacity to be alone scale and the self-concept clarity scale.The following results were obtained:(1)There are significant difference in the gender of attachment-related avoidance and self-concept clarity,but there is no significant difference between the grade.(2)The descending order proportion of students in different adult attachment types are: the fear(46.98%)>the indifferent(21.81%)>the secure(16.78%)>the focus(14.43%).(3)There are significant difference in the self-concept clarity and solitude ability of college students with different attachment types.(4)Attachment anxiety and avoidance were negatively correlated with self-concept clarity;attachment anxiety was negatively correlated with comfort of solitude,and attachment avoidance was positively correlated with comfort of solitude;there was a positive correlation between comfort of solitude and self-concept clarity.All of theses relationships were significant.(5)The comfort of solitude plays a partial mediating role between colleges’ attachment and self-concept clarity.The following conclusions are drawn: The boys of Sophomores,juniors and fourth-grade have lower attachment avoidance than girls,and the college boys have higher self-concept clarity than girls;Different attachment types according to the high to low proportion of collegeattachment types,the security’s self-concept clarity are the clearest,the fearful self-concept is the unclearest,the indifferent have the highest capacity to be alone,and the focus is the least capacity to be alone;Attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance have negative predictive effect on the clarity of self-concept;Attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance can influence the clarity of self-concept partly by the comfort in solitude of college students,that is,the lower level of attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance,the higher level of comfort in solitude and the clearer self-concept.