TPC Journal Volume 11 Issue 2

132 The Professional Counselor | Volume 11, Issue 2 Research has also supported the association between self-esteem, adult attachment, and psychological distress. Lopez and Gormley (2002) followed 207 college students from the beginning to the end of their freshman year and identified adjustment outcomes in association with the participants’ attachment styles and changes of their attachment styles measured by the ECR (e.g., secure-to-insecure attachment, insecure-to-secure attachment). The authors found that participants who remained securely attached scored higher in self-confidence and lower in both psychological distress and reactive coping compared to those who reported consistent insecure attachment. Moreover, participants who maintained secure attachment presented better outcomes in self-confidence and psychological well-being than the comparative group with secure-to-insecure or insecure-to-secure attachment changes (Lopez & Gormley, 2002). Adult attachment (measured by the ECR) was also found to be a mediator for the effects of traumatic events on post-traumatic symptomatology among a sample of female college students (Sandberg et al., 2010). In addition, Roberts et al. (1996) suggested attachment insecurity contributed to negative beliefs about oneself, which in turn activated cognitive structures of psychological distress, such as depression and anxiety, with a sample of 152 undergraduate students. Taken together, the literature provides consistent support for the significant relationships between childhood attachment and various outcome variables in later adulthood, including adult attachment, self-esteem, and psychological distress. It further reveals a two-fold gap: (a) the variables tended to be investigated separately in previous studies, yet the mechanisms among these variables remained underexplored; and (b) little is known about the role of self-esteem and adult attachment in the association between childhood attachment and psychological distress. Disentangling the mechanisms, including potential mediating roles, involved in the variables will enrich the current knowledge based on attachment and can facilitate counseling interventions surrounding the effects of childhood attachment. In tackling the gap, three hypotheses were posed: 1. Childhood attachment is significantly associated with adult attachment, self- esteem, and psychological distress. 2. Self-esteem mediates the relationship between perceived childhood attachment and adult attachment. 3. Adult attachment mediates the relationship between self-esteem and psychological distress. Method Participants Of the 2,373 voluntary adult participants who took the survey, 1,708 (72%) completed 95% of all the questions and were retained for final analysis. Among the participants, 76.2% ( n = 1,302) were female, 22.3% ( n = 381) were male, and 1.3% ( n = 25) chose not to specify their gender. The mean age of the participants was 29.89, ranging from 18 to 89 years old ( SD = 12.44). A total of 66.3% ( n = 1,133) of participants described themselves as White/European American, 8.7% ( n = 148) as African American, 10.2% ( n = 175) as Asian/Pacific Islander, 2.6% ( n = 44) as American Indian/Native American, 7.3% ( n = 124) as biracial or multiracial, 3.6% ( n = 61) as other race, and 1.3% ( n = 23) did not specify. Sampling Procedures The study was approved by the university’s IRB. We posted the recruitment information on various websites (e.g., Facebook, discussion board, university announcement board, Craigslist) in order to recruit a diverse pool of participants. Individuals who were 18 years old or above and were able to