Relationships among Attachment with Parents, Self-Differentiation and Fear of Intimacy among College Students

대학생이 지각한 부모애착과 자기분화 및 친밀한 관계에 대한 두려움

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships of parental attachment and self-differentiation with fear of intimacy perceived by college students. The data of the study were collected through self-administered questionnaire method with 187 male and 159 female college students. The major results of this research were as follows. First, there were significant differences in the level of attachment with parents according to parent's marital statue, living standard, and father's education level. Second, there were significant differences in the level of self-differentiation across sex, age, parent's marital statue, living standard, and parental's education level. Third, the level of attachment with parents was positively correlated with self-differentiation, indicating that the greater the level of attachment with parents, the higher the degree of self-differentiation. Fourth, fear of intimacy was negatively associated with parental attachment and self-differentiation, showing that the greater the degree of fear of intimacy, the lower the lever of attachment with parents and self-differentiation. Finally, multiple regression analysis result reported that emotional cutoff among the four self-differentiation subscales was the most powerful variable predicting the fear of intimacy. The results were shortly discussed in terms of some implications for education and counseling with college students.