Attachment,Relationships,Academic Problems,and Negative Emotions in Student Veterans With Disabilities

Attachment

Attachment and attachment orientations have long been an area of interest in counseling research. Attachment theory is a psychological model that centers around the human response dynamics of long- and short-term interpersonal relationships when faced with hurt, separated from loved ones, or perceiving a threat (Waters et al., 2005). The theory postulates that personality development and enduring patterns of social interaction result from caregiver response during infancy (Ainsworth et al., 1978). Ainsworth and Bowlby (1991) further extrapolated that the human drive for intimate and close relationships is an evolutionary and biological trait.

Attachment theory is relevant to the population of student veterans (Umucu, Chan, Lee, et al., 2022), as well as Veterans in general, as it can be related to responses to posttraumatic situations such as deployment and active combat. Additionally, attachment theory may shed light on the strengths and vulnerabilities of veterans’ relationships and the impact of deployment and combat on those relationships. When an individual goes through trauma or a significant life change, such as joining the military and returning to civilian life, these experiences can threaten an individual’s sense of safety and stimulate their attachment (Bowlby, 1988). People with secure attachment style, as well as those who receive comfort and support after a traumatic situation, are more likely to report a reduction in traumatic or posttraumatic symptoms (Mikulincer et al., 2015). In the study conducted by Bannister and colleagues (2018) on male and female veterans, unhealthy attachment was found to be positively associated with greater severity of PTSD symptoms and increased difficulty transitioning to civilian life.

Attachment theory has conceptualized attachment as either secure or insecure, with attachment avoidance and anxiety as the measurement dimensions: high attachment avoidance and anxiety characterizing insecure attachment, and low attachment avoidance and anxiety characterizing secure attachment (Bartholomew & Horowitz, 1991). Unhealthy attachment is operationalized within adult romantic and sexual relationships (Mikulincer & Shaver, 2018) and has been correlated with negative emotions such as depression and anxiety (Dagan et al., 2018). Previous research has also documented that attachment style may negatively affect therapeutic alliance and bond between clients and counselors (Diener & Monroe, 2011).

Romantic and Sexual Relationships

Attachment theory has been proven useful in research examining adult relationships, as it provides a helpful model for understanding adult relationship patterns, emotional regulation, and sexual relationships (Mikulincer & Shaver, 2018). In long-term relationships, success is often characterized by several key factors, including relationship length, levels of intimacy, levels of commitment, and a mutual vision for the future. In such relationships, couples support each other, share important experiences, seek out, and see their partner as a figure of attachment (Mikulincer & Shaver, 2018). Shaver and Hazan (1987) conducted seminal studies among adults with unhealthy attachment (anxious or avoidant), and the results indicated that these individuals had less optimism about romantic relationships and experienced difficulty in falling in or out of love. The result also indicated that these individuals had a greater tendency to perceive threats within the relationship and were more likely to engage in dysfunctional behaviors, they were found to have a lack of confidence in establishing and maintaining healthy relationships. Conversely, those with healthy attachment styles can perceive and express respect, positive emotions, and gratitude to their partners more; the expression of these positive emotions can lead to the success of a relationship via its longevity, intimacy levels, and commitment (Mikulincer & Shaver, 2018).

Healthy or unhealthy attachment also impacts sexual relationships and sexual functioning within relationships. Hazan and Shaver (1987) believed that romantic love includes an attachment, giving care to another, and incorporates sex. Mikulincer and Shaver (2018) mentioned that, while the sexual system may be in part for physical mechanisms such as pleasure and an evolutionary desire to propagate the species, it is also part of a healthy romantic relationship. The authors further stated that adults with insecure attachment are more likely to experience problems of a sexual nature and less likely to report sexual enjoyment.

Attachment style has been empirically linked to an ability to express love and affection for partners both during and outside of sexual experiences (Hazan & Shaver, 1987). Individuals with insecure attachment styles reported less sexual pleasure and a lack of control over their sexual experiences (Birnbaum, 2007). Attachment security is correlated with increased positive emotions, more passion during sexual encounters, more satisfying long-term relationships, and more confidence and positive feelings about self (Birnbaum, 2007).

Negative Emotions

Attachment theory considers the quality of attachment formed between children and their parents and how it affects relationships later in life as a significant basis for developing emotions in childhood and adulthood (Bowlby, 1988). Relationships formed in the family are interrelated with relationships formed with peers, including romantic partners (Kerns, 1996). Negative emotions have been found to mediate the relationship between attachment and relationship quality (Abraham & Kerns, 2013) and correlated with unhealthy attachment. Specifically, in a meta-analytical study, avoidant attachment was linked with less positive emotions and lower ability to navigate healthy social relationships; anxious attachment was linked with more negative emotions or affect (Cooke et al., 2018).

Unhealthy attachment patterns, such as anxious or avoidant attachment, are related to negative emotions. For example, avoidant attachment is characterized by distrust and emotional distance within relationships (Mikulincer & Shaver, 2018); it was found to be correlated with negative feelings of hostility or anger and sadness or depression (Paech et al., 2016). Anxious attachment is characterized by distrust and concern for unmet emotional needs (Mikulincer & Shaver, 2018); it was found to correlate with negative emotions of sadness, anger, and anxiety (Paech et al., 2016). Paech and colleagues (2016) also found that feelings of anxiety, fear, and depression were highly impactful to one’s mastery of their environment, including work and higher education settings. Positive feelings, or emotions, and the regulation of emotions can influence an individual’s relationships, management of stress, and experiences in higher education institutions (Mikulincer & Shaver, 2018).

Mental and Emotional Health and Academic Success

Academic success is an important aspect of higher education and is correlated with mental health and counseling outcomes (Lee et al., 2009; Sadeghi Bahmani et al., 2018; Whiston & Quinby, 2009). Academic success is implicated by cognitive processes as well as emotion. Studies have found that academic problems, which are the opposite of academic success, were linked with depressive symptoms and poor self-esteem (Feshbach & Feshbach, 1987). More recent studies have linked anxiety and depression with academic success; lower levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms correlate with higher academic success and vice versa (Sadeghi Bahmani et al., 2018).

The role of positive and negative emotions has been increasingly studied in terms of academic success (Fiedler & Beier, 2014; Pekrun & Stephens, 2010). Negative emotions, such as anxiety, sadness, and anger, have been found to be correlated with academic problems and mental health issues (Mandracchia & Pendleton, 2015). While much research has focused on test anxiety and its role in poor academic success (Rowe & Fitness, 2018), a newer and growing research body begins to examine the effect of other emotions such as sadness, fear, loneliness, and anger on academic success.

Negative emotions correlate with academic outcomes, including failure to reach academic goals, lower levels of motivation and self-efficacy in educational settings, and even cognition (Rowe & Fitness, 2018). Martin and colleagues (1993) theorize that emotional effects can impact academic success like this: one’s positive emotions will prolong their engagement in an activity (e.g., studying), thereby increasing their success, while one’s negative emotions will shorten this time and engagement, thereby decreasing their success or causing academic problems.

When considering veterans in institutions of higher learning, some of the data is encouraging. Mediating factors between negative emotions and academic problems include life experience, age, and the ability to work independently and problem-solve, all of which are traits found among student veterans (Barry et al., 2014). Addressing academic challenges and mitigating academic problems in student veterans with disabilities is a clear need to help the services provided by counselors in disability centers (Umucu, Moser et al., 2020; Umucu, Wu et al., 2020; Umucu, Lee et al., 2021). College can be a difficult transition for traditional college students in dealing with anxiety, depression, and other negative emotions, and student veterans with disabilities face even more difficulties in this area (Umucu, Castruita Rios et al., 2022; Umucu, Chan, Phillips, et al., 2022; Umucu, Ghosh et al., 2022). There has been a recent increase in college students’ utilization of student counseling centers, as they seek help with academic problems (Mandracchia & Pendleton, 2015).

The Current Study

Based on the literature discussed above, it is essential to examine whether the relationship between unhealthy attachment and academic problems can be mediated by romantic and sexual relationship problems and negative emotions in student veterans with disabilities. The findings from this study will inform counseling practice and the development of targeted interventions to work with student veterans with disabilities. We hypothesized that the indirect effect of unhealthy attachment on academic problems through romantic and sexual relationship problems and negative emotions would be significant.

Method

Results

Serial Mediation Analysis

We conducted a serial mediation analysis to examine romantic and sexual relationship problems and negative emotions as mediators for the relationship between unhealthy attachment and academic problems. We used the PROCESS macro (Hayes, 2013) to identify total, direct, and indirect effects. The indirect, specific impact in this model was (a) through romantic and sexual relationship problems (a₁b₁); (b) through negative emotions (a₂b₂); and (c) through romantic and sexual relationship problems and negative emotions (a₁d₂₁b₂).

The unhealthy attachment was positively correlated with academic problems (path c = .46). The unhealthy attachment was directly and positively linked to romantic and sexual relationship problems and negative emotions (path a₁ = .24 and path a₂ = .45, respectively). Romantic and sexual relationship problems were positively linked to negative emotions and academic problems (path d₂₁ = .18 and path b₁ = .28, respectively). Negative emotions were directly linked to academic problems (path b₂ = .39). The relationship between unhealthy attachment and academic problems stayed significant (path c’ = .19), indicating that romantic and sexual relationship problems and negative emotions partially mediated the relationship between unhealthy attachment and academic problems. The R² for the serial mediation model analysis was found to be 0.44, indicating that 44% of the variance in academic problems was explained by romantic and sexual relationship problems, negative emotions, and unhealthy attachment.

We used PROCESS macro with 5,000 bootstrap samples (95% CI) to test the indirect effect and found a significant indirect effect of unhealthy attachment on academic problems. The first indirect path from unhealthy attachment to academic problems through romantic and sexual relationship problems was significant (point estimate =0.09, 95% CI = 0.02, 0.19). The second indirect path from unhealthy attachment to academic problems through negative emotions was significant (point estimate = 0.23, 95% CI = 0.12, 0.35). Finally, the third indirect path from unhealthy attachment to academic problems through romantic and sexual relationship problems and negative emotions was significant (point estimate = 0.02, 95% CI = 0.01, 0.04); (see Figure 1).

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Figure 1.

The dotted line denotes the effect of unhealthy attachment on academic problems when romantic relationships and negative emotions are not included as serial mediators.

Discussion

This study aimed to examine whether the relationship between unhealthy attachment and academic problems can be mediated by romantic and sexual relationship problems and negative emotions in student veterans with disabilities. Our results indicate that the relationship between unhealthy attachment and academic problems was partially mediated by romantic and sexual relationship problems and negative emotions in student veterans with disabilities. Our analysis provides novel counseling insights by clarifying the intermediary roles of both relationship problems and negative emotions between attachment style and academic problems for student veterans with disabilities. Similar associations were found between unhealthy attachment and relationship problems, negative emotions, and academic problems, respectively. The key finding of the analysis is that relationship problems and negative emotions mediate the initial association between unhealthy attachment and academic issues. This is valuable information because it highlights the potential for targeted counseling interventions to alleviate the negative effects of attachment style on academic performance by paying special attention to relationship issues and addressing negative emotions.

The value of this study is underscored by the dearth of research examining the complex relationships between attachment style, relationship issues, negative emotions, and academic problems. Although there is a lack of research examining the roles of relationship problems and negative emotions between unhealthy attachment styles and academic problems for student veterans, our findings consistently align with studies that examined attachment styles in other populations. Our findings corroborate studies that have found statistically negative correlations between psychiatric distress and academic performance for student veterans (Ness et al., 2015). Research indicates that in general Veterans may be at higher risk for mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety, PTSD, and others (Goff et al., 2007), in college, student veterans who experiencing adjustment difficulties had significantly higher rates of PTSD, depression, and other mental health issues than other student veterans who did not report having difficulties adjusting to (Schonfeld et al., 2015). These differing rates may be illuminated by attachment style and the effects of unhealthy attachment on behavior. For example, these student veterans, having difficulties adjusting to college, also have been shown to have lower treatment-seeking behaviors than their non-veteran peers (Bonar et al., 2015).

Additionally, student veterans may encounter added complexity in regard to their mental health, as their mental health symptoms might be markedly different from their civilian peers (Smith et al., 2017; Rumrill et al., 2023; Umucu, Lo et al., 2022; Umucu, Rumrill et al., 2022; Umucu, 2022; Umucu, Lee et al., 2023). For example, student veterans may experience more strain within their romantic and sexual relationships (Johnson et al., 2014) and have greater feelings of alienation from peers on campus (Elliott et al., 2011) and lower academic persistence (Grossbard et al., 2014; Weber, 2012). Each of these behaviors exemplifies existing research on unhealthy attachment.

Attachment styles have been studied in other populations and settings analogs to academic performance. For example, according to Little and colleagues (2011), insecurely attached individuals view relationships differently. Some of these individuals may avoid close relationships due to a belief that others will not provide adequate support during times of need. The resultant distress symptoms may include psychological ill-health due to attempts at suppressing negative thoughts, potentially leading to opposing views on exploration and diminished cognitive openness (Little et al., 2011; Mikulincer & Sheffi, 2000). People with an insecure attachment style may minimize emotional involvement and utilize limited cognitive and emotional resources to suppress negative emotions and displays of distress (Dewitte et al., 2019; Millings et al., 2019).

Regarding the mediating role of relationships between unhealthy attachment and academic problems, our findings are consistent with other research examining the links between attachment style and relationships as well as relationship issues and academic problems. Further research indicates that student veterans experience higher relationship problem-related levels than their civilian peers. Those relationship problems are characterized by more disagreements and lower overall satisfaction (Mikulincer & Shaver, 2007; Riggs et al., 2019). Insecure attachment is related to more problems in relationships than secure attachment (Riggs et al., 2019). Evidence suggests that student veterans with higher support from family and peers have better mental health and better academic outcomes (Borsari et al., 2017; Romero et al., 2015). Student veterans are at higher risk for more strained romantic relationships, exacerbating existing academic problems (Schmidt & Lockwood, 2017).