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ABSTRACT The study was conducted to examine: the association between attachment styles (i.e. secure, fearful, pre-occupied and dismissing), self-esteem and rejection sensitivity level among university students; and to explore the mediating role of self-esteem betweenrelationship of preoccupied attachment style with rejection sensitivity. The sample consisted of 409 students (181 men and 228 women) with age range of 18-26 years from public and private universities of Rawalpindi, Islamabad and Lahore. Measures used were Relationship Scales Questionnaire (Griffin and Bartholomew, 1994), Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965) and Rejection Sensitivity Questionnaire (Feldman and Downy, 1996). Correlation analysis revealed that secure attachment style is significantly negatively related to rejection sensitivity levelwhereasfearful, preoccupied and dismissing attachment styles were significantly positively related to rejection sensitivity level among university students.
Further, it is indicated that only preoccupied attachment style is found significantly negatively related to self-esteem. Furthermore, the mediation analysis showed that the relationship between preoccupied attachment style and rejection sensitivity was partially mediated by self-esteem.
Keywords: Attachment Styles, Self-Esteem, Rejection Sensitivity, University Students INTRODUCTION Establishing and sustaining positive bonds with others is a rudimentary human motivation (DeWall et al., 2012). Attachment is a connection or tie between an individual and his attachment figure (Prior and Glaser, 2006). Attachment is similarly an affectional link formed during infancy and childhood with primary and secondary caregivers (Cohan, 2005). First, Bowlby (1907-1990) tried to understand the concept of attachment by studying the extreme anxietyundergone by newborn children who were isolated from their caregivers (Bowlby, 1969). Along with her contemporaries, Ainsworth was considered the first researcher to classify the orientations of attachment, which she described as three classification model i.e. anxious ambivalent, secure and avoidant attachment (Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, and Wall, 1978). Later on, Hazan and Shaver (1987) were the first to begin to understand adults' relationships in terms of attachment processes.
They implemented Ainsworth's three classification schemes as an outline for organizing individual variances in the way adults' reason, sense, and act in interactions with others.
Bartholomew (1990) established the four classification system for styles of attachment centered on four groupings attained through dividing the individual's intangible view of a person into negative (high dependency) or positive (low dependency) on one of the axis, whereas dividing the individuals' nonconcrete viewof another subject into negative...