Relationship between Attachment Style and Specialty Selection in Medical Interns in Ahvaz

Medical specialty selection is a critical issue that can have a direct impact on the health care workforce and affect the needs of the community health sector. Attachment styles, as one of the influencing factors in interpersonal interactions, can play a role in the specialty selection. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between attachment styles and specialty selection in medical interns in Ahvaz. This is a descriptive epidemiological study. The study population consisted of medical interns from Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences in Ahvaz in 2018. The study selection method was convenience sampling. A questionnaire including the demographics, items regarding preferred and selected specialties, and Collins Read Adult Attachment Scale were used for data collection. Data were analyzed using SPSS software. The most preferred specialties of the participants were cardiology (16%), general surgery (11.8%), and radiology (10.7%). The specialties mainly selected by the participants were radiology (21.9%) and dermatology (20.1%). 123 students (72.8%) had a secure attachment style, 36 (21.3%) had an anxiety attachment style, and 5 (3%) had an avoidant attachment style. The frequencies of preferred specialties were not significantly different in terms of attachment style (P = 0.339), the frequencies of the selected specialties were not significantly different in terms of attachment style as well (P = 0.774). The present study results showed no relationship between interns’ attachment styles and their interest in their specialties.