Emerging adulthood and loss experiences: Examination of attachment-based mental representations and psychological symptoms

The aim of this study is to examine the psychological symptoms and Attachment-Based Mental Representations of university students who experienced the death of first and second-degree relatives or the break-up of their romantic relationships. The sample consisted of 122 female and 102 male students. The age of the participants ranged between 18 and 29 with a mean of 21.31 years (SD = 1.90). Demographic Information Form, Brief Symptom Inventory and Attachment-Based Mental Representation Scale were used to collect data. One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) results showed that there was no significant difference on Attachment-Based Mental Representations among the groups. Therefore, all groups are assumed to be homogeneous in terms of attachment-based mental representations. To compare psychological symptom levels of the groups, ANOVA was also conducted. The results indicated that there were significant differences between the groups who lost their second-degree relatives and who break-up their romantic relationship. However, there was no significant differences between the groups who lost their first-degree relatives and who break-up their romantic relationships. Regression analysis revealed that negative self-representation and negative father-representation significantly predicted psychological symptoms of the group who experienced the break-up. Consequently, break-up of the romantic relationship is quite important for emerging adulthood. In addition, current study revealed that negative self representation and negative father-representation of adolescents who experienced the break-up led to the risk factors for psychological symptoms.