Abstract:

Background and Aim: Recently psychology researchers have focused on the factors that mediate the relationship between attachment and depression. Due to complications associated with ignoring these mediating factors in the etiology of depression diagnosis and treatment of depression. Therefore, in this study through the standard path coefficient, the relationships between attachment styles and basic psychological needs with depression are investigated. The aim of this study is to evaluate the mediating role of the basic psychological needs satisfaction in the relationship between attachment and depression.

Materials and Methods: This study was descriptive and 290 students from the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of Allameh Tabataba'i University were selected. Indicators of basic psychological needs including autonomy, competence and belonging were measured by the Basic Psychological Needs Satisfaction Scale (BPNS-general version), indicators of ambivalent attachment and avoidant attachment were measured by the adult attachment inventory, and indicator of depression was measured by the center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale (CES-D), and the path coefficient were analyzed using path analysis to assess the theoretical model.

Results: There was no correlation between the five indicators with depression (r<0.7). The correlation between avoidant attachment with depression was 0.15 but through basic psychological needs satisfaction was 0.35 and the correlation between ambivalent attachment with depression was 0.26 but through basic psychological needs satisfaction was 0.45 (p<0.01).

‍Conclusion: It seems that the basic psychological needs satisfaction moderate the relationship between attachment avoidance and depression. More research in this field is recommended.