On the Causal Relationships of Attachment Styles, Loneliness, and Self-Esteem with Addiction Potential

The aim of the present research was to determine the fitness of the model of causal relationships of attachment styles, loneliness, and self-esteem with addiction potential.
The current research was a descriptive-correlational one. From among all universities in the city of Kerman, 596 students were selected via multistage cluster sampling method; and responded to Hazan and Shaver’s Adult Attachment Scale (AAS); DiTommaso, Brannen, and Best’s Social and Emotional Loneliness Scale for Adults (short form); Rosenberg’s Self-Esteem Scale; and Zargar’s Iranian Addiction Potential Scale (IAPS). Path analysis through AMOS software was used to evaluate the model.
The attained model enjoyed proper fit indexes. From among the variables, ambivalent attachment style has a direct and significant effect on addiction potential; however, it had a reverse and significant relationship through the mediation role of self-esteem.
from among attachment styles, only ambivalent attachment style has both a direct and an indirect relationship with addiction potential under the mediating role of loneliness and self-esteem.