ARTICLE INFO

Article Type

Descriptive & Survey Study

Authors

Etemadi   O. (*)
Saadat   S. (1)






(*) Counseling Department, Educational Sciences & Psychology Faculty, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran
(1) Counseling Department, Educational Sciences & Psychology Faculty, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran

Correspondence

Address: Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Isfahan, Azadi Square, Isfahan, Iran
Phone: +983137932515
Fax: +983136687396
o.etemadi@edu.ui.ac.ri

Article History

Received:  July  28, 2015
Accepted:  August 26, 2015
ePublished:  October 25, 2015

BRIEF TEXT


… [1-14] Attachment is started in infancy and it is stable over time [15]. Attachment style is one of the most important factors in interpersonal interactions [16]. Three major styles of attachment are secure, anxious-resistant insecure attachment and anxious-avoidant insecure attachment [17, 18].

Secure and insecure attachment styles (avoidant and anxious), social competence variables and participation in social activities [19], the efficacy among students and attachment style and metacognitive skills [20], psychological well-being variables, family solidarity, and spiritual health [21] have been studied. … [22]

This study aimed to investigate the correlation between family health and attachment styles in prediction of academic self-efficacy.

This study is cross-sectional and correlational.

Undergraduate students at School of Literature and Humanities of Gilan University (Iran) were studied in the academic years 2015-2016.

335 undergraduate students were selected based on multiple-stage cluster method based on Krejcie and Morgan Table [23]. … [24]

In order to collect data, following standard tools were used. The main family scale which has 40 Likert scale questions from strongly disagree (1) to totally agree (5). In this test a minimum score is 40 and the maximum score is 200. Higher individual score in this test means the higher perception of the person of his/her family`s health. The validity of this method has been confirmed by factor analysis and its reliability has been reported 0.89 [25]. … [26] Adult Attachment Scale (AAS) [17] has 15 questions and it measures three styles of attachment namely secure, avoidant and anxious styles in five-point Likert scale from very low (1) to very high (5).The lowest and highest scores on the subscales of test are 5 and 25, respectively [17]. Reliability of this test has been calculated 0.79 in Iran using Cronbach`s Alpha method [27]. Students` Academic Self-efficacy Questionnaire has 33 items scored from very low to very high (from 1 to 5). It measures students` self-confidence in relation to note taking, questioning, attention in class, using computers, etc. [28]. Since all the 28 items are related to the laboratory practice and not all courses do have laboratory practice, this question has been deleted in the Persian version of this questionnaire. Therefore, the number of items has been reduced to 32 questions in Persian version. In Persian version, the internal consistency of the questionnaire has been calculated 0.91 and its validity has been confirmed using factor analysis [21]. In order to analyze data, SPSS 22 software was used and the results were reported in descriptive and inferential statistics. To assess the correlation between variables, Pearson Correlation Coefficient was used. To assess the normal distribution of data, Kolmogorov Smirnov test was used. To examine the independence of the errors, Camera-Watson test was used. To predict the effect of predictive variables in predicting academic self-efficacy variance among the students, Linear Regression Multivariate Stepwise Method was used.

317 students completed the questionnaire (with the response rate 94.6%). The mean age of students was 21.89 ± 3.21years. 173 of students were female and 144 were male.189 students were living in dormitories and 128 students were living with their families. The mean of academic self-efficacy variables was 109.89 ± 12.68; the mean of family health was 144.56 ± 17.37; the mean of secure attachment style was 11.93 ± 3.10; the mean of avoidant style was 8.38 ± 4.17, and the mean of anxious style was 8.04 ± 4.28. Family health and secure attachment style has a positive and significant correlation with academic self-efficacy, and avoidant and anxious attachment styles had a negative and significant correlation with academic self-efficacy variable (Table 1). Predictive variables of avoidance attachment style, secure attachment style, anxious attachment style, and family health explained 0.3 of the variance in students` academic self-efficacy in four-step regression. Avoidant attachment style, secure attachment style, anxious attachment style and family health, played more significant roles in prediction of academic self-efficacy, successively.

The results showed that there is a significant positive correlation between self-efficacy and family health. The relationship between academic self-efficacy and organized solidarity within family [25], the emotional involvement of parents with children [29], family functioning system [30] and perceived social support from family [31] have been examined and results confirm the role of family in the formation of the students` academic self-efficacy beliefs. … [32, 33] The other results of this study showed that academic self-efficacy has positive and significant correlation with secure attachment style, and on the other hand the avoidant and anxious attachment styles have negative and significant correlation with students` academic self-efficacy. The results of studies on the importance of secure attachment styles among adults in high academic self-efficacy and the importance of insecure attachment styles in the reduction of students` academic self-efficacy are in line with the current study [20, 34]. Secure attachment style is associated with a high level of self-efficacy and insecure attachment styles are associated with low level of self-efficacy [35-38]. Stepwise regression analysis indicated that avoidant, secure, anxious attachments as well as family health explained 0.3 of variance of students` academic self-efficacy in four steps. Spiritual health, psychological well-being and family cohesion explain 0.28 variance of academic self-efficacy in students respectively [21]. Coping strategies, perceived stress, and perceived social support are able to predict 0.39 of students` academic self-efficacy variance [39]. Self-awareness, cognitive strategies, planning and attachment styles are able to predict 0.73 of students` academic self-efficacy variance [20].

Training of health family promotion, therapies based on attachment theory and workshops for enhancing self-efficacy is recommended for the students.

To limit the predictive variables on attachment styles and family health in predicting academic self-efficacy are of the limitations of this study. To limit the study to the students of Literature and Humanities School of University of Gilan was another limitation of this study.

Family health and secure attachment style increase the students` academic self-efficacy beliefs. In addition, avoidant and anxious attachment styles reduce students` academic self-efficacy.

All participating students and university instructors as well as university educational staffs are appreciated.

Non-declared

The participants were assured of confidentiality of questionnaire results.

No financial support has been received from any organization.

TABLES and CHARTS

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