42 The Professional Counselor | Volume 13, Issue 1 cope with this transition and form meaningful relationships may depend on the adaptiveness of their attachment style. Individuals with a secure attachment style report a stronger sense of self and social competence (Akdoğan, 2017; Klausli & Caudill, 2021), which may counteract feelings of loneliness. Research on loneliness has frequently pointed to a lack of prosocial skills and social competency to initiate and maintain friendships when addressing the connection between insecure attachment and loneliness (Akdoğan, 2017). Individuals with secure attachment demonstrate strong social skills and social competency and can be said to possess social self-efficacy. “Adult attachment research revealed that attachment insecurities tended to negatively bias cognitions, emotions, and behavior during interpersonal interactions” (Mikulincer & Shaver, 2014, p. 37); therefore, it could be concluded that individuals with attachment insecurities are likely to exhibit low social self-efficacy. Earlier researchers found conflicting effects of social self-efficacy on loneliness (Mallinckrodt & Wei, 2005; Wei et al., 2005). The results of a longitudinal study of 308 freshmen examining social self-efficacy and self-disclosure as mediators for insecure attachment, loneliness, and depression revealed that a lack of social self-efficacy mediated the relationship between anxious attachment and loneliness after controlling for depression (Wei et al., 2005). However, social self-efficacy was not found to mediate avoidant attachment. In another study with 430 students investigating social self-efficacy as a mediator for insecure attachment, social support, and psychological distress, researchers found that high levels of avoidant attachment were correlated with lower levels of social self-efficacy and perceived social support (Mallinckrodt & Wei, 2005). These competing findings influenced us to further explore the extent to which social self-efficacy would affect loneliness. The Current Study For this study, we focused on social and emotional loneliness (Yanguas et al., 2018), holding the view that loneliness is a temporary psychological state due to circumstances (DiTommaso et al., 2015). These two dimensions are considered more salient for college students given their psychosocial developmental levels and societal expectations. Researchers (Akdoğan, 2017; Benoit & DiTommaso, 2020; Mikulincer & Shaver, 2014, 2019) have indicated that primary attachment style impacts social competency, sense of self, and one’s ability to form a supportive network. All of these can affect whether college students experience loneliness and to what degree they experience it. To date, few researchers have examined how the detrimental effects of loneliness in people with avoidant and anxious attachment styles can be mediated by social self-efficacy. In this study, we examined the triadic relationship between the dimensions of insecure attachment (i.e., anxious attachment and avoidant attachment), loneliness, and social self-efficacy. Three research questions and hypotheses guided this study: 1. What is the relationship between social self-efficacy, loneliness, and the types of insecure attachment? 2. Do anxious attachment and avoidant attachment predict the levels of social self-efficacy? 3. How does social self-efficacy mediate the relationship between loneliness and anxious attachment and avoidant attachment styles? We hypothesized that a) social self-efficacy, loneliness, and anxiety are correlated; b) anxious attachment and avoidant attachment will predict the levels of social self-efficacy; and c) social self-efficacy will mediate the relationship between loneliness and anxious attachment and avoidant attachment styles.
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