Separation Anxiety in Emerging Adults: The Role of Attachment Styles and Personality Traits

To examine childhood and adult separation anxiety symptoms and their associations with attachment styles, personality traits, and sociodemographic factors among university students.

This cross-sectional study included 200 first-year university students. Attachment styles and personality traits were assessed using the Three-Dimensional Attachment Style Scale and the Five-Factor Personality Inventory, respectively. Based on validated cut-off scores from the Separation Anxiety Symptom Inventory and the Adult Separation Anxiety Questionnaire, participants were classified as screen-negative (n=48, 24%), childhood separation anxiety symptom-positive (CSAD) (n=30, 15%), adult separation anxiety symptom-positive (ASAD) (n=27, 13.5%), or childhood and adult separation anxiety symptom-positive (CSAD&ASAD) (n=95, 47.5%). Group differences were analyzed using non-parametric tests, and hierarchical regression examined factors associated with adult separation anxiety symptom scores.

The CSAD&ASAD group showed significantly lower secure attachment and higher avoidant and anxious-ambivalent attachment scores compared with other groups. Emotional stability scores were significantly higher in the screen-negative group than in the ASAD and CSAD&ASAD groups. Parental separation/divorce and firstborn status were associated with higher symptom levels. In multivariable analyses, higher Beck Anxiety Inventory scores (β=0.275, p<0.001), lower emotional stability (β=-0.266, p<0.001), lower conscientiousness (β=-0.155, p=0.012), and firstborn status (β=-0.114, p=0.045) were independently associated with adult separation anxiety symptom scores, with the final model explaining 48.3% of the variance.

Separation anxiety symptoms were common among university students. Findings highlight the role of internalizing symptom severity, personality traits, and selected sociodemographic factors in adult separation anxiety symptom scores. These findings should be interpreted at the symptom level and require confirmation through longitudinal and clinically structured studies.