Journal of Counseling Research

Abstract

Objective: the objective of present study is examining the causal relationship between attachment styles with marital commitment by mediation of differentiation of self and guilty feeling in married female students of Ahvaz city. Methodology: participants in this study were in total 211 married female students of Ahvaz city, which were selected using available purposive sampling. The instruments used in this study wereBehavioral Style Questionnaire (BSQ), Marital Commitment Questionnaire (MCQ), differentiation of selfInventory (DSI), conscious emotionsInventory. Evaluation of the proposed model was carries out using path analysis method. In order to test indirect relationships, boot-strap method was used. Findings: the results showed that from among 16 direct paths, 4 paths of secure attachment style to differentiation of self,  insecure attachment style to guilty feeling, guilty feeling to moral commitment and differentiation of self to structural commitment didn't become significant.Also, the results showed that all the indirect effects of copying styles (secure and insecure) and marital commitment with mediation of differentiation of self and guilty feeling became significant. On the other hand, indirect effects of secure attachment style and moral commitment with mediation of guilty feeling and indirect effects of secure and insecure attachmentwith structural commitment with mediation of differentiation of selfdidn't become significant. Better fitting thorough eliminating insignificant paths of secure attachment style to differentiation of self, insecure attachment style with guilty feeling, guilty feeling with moral commitment and differentiation of self with structural commitment were obtained. In this study, significance level was α=0.05. Conclusion: in a marital relationship, the level of differentiation and guilty feeling in either party of a couple and attachment style formed in individuals is effective for their marital commitment in their married lives.