The relationship between attachment styles, self-regulation, and academic achievement in students

AIM: This study aimed to investigate the relationship between attachment styles, self-regulation, and academic achievement in students. METHODS: This was applied research in terms of purpose and descriptive-correlational research.The research population included all third-grade students of public high schools in Ilam, that were 700 students who were enrolled in 2014–2015 academic years. The sample included 248 students of the third grade in high schools of Ilam, that were selected using multistage cluster sampling method and table of Morgan. Tools were Bouffard's questionnaire of self-regulation in learning and revised adult attachment scale. Pearson's correlation and stepwise regression were used to analyze data. RESULTS: The results showed that there was no significant relationship between attachment styles and academic achievement, but there was significant positive relationship between self-regulation and academic achievement (P ≤ 0.01). There was a significant positive relationship between secure attachment style and cognition (P ≤ 0.01). Furthermore, results showed that there was significant positive relationship between avoidant attachment style and self-regulation (P ≤ 0.01) as well as cognitive and metacognitive components (P ≤ 0.01); however, there was no significant relationship between insecure attachment style and self-regulation and its components. CONCLUSION: Regression analysis results showed that 0.1% of the observed variance in academic achievement scores was explained by effect of attachment that was not significant.