Several studies link attachment insecurities with lower levels of life satisfaction. Positive psychology studies link character strengths, especially those associated with social interactions (i.e., love and gratitude) or optimism (hope and zest), with higher levels of life satisfaction. We hypothesized that the negative associations between insecure attachment and life satisfaction is mediated by low endorsement of such strengths. In this study 394 individuals completed the ECR measure of attachment orientations, the VIA-IS measure of virtues and character strengths, and the SWLS measure of life satisfaction. Results showed that most strengths were negatively associated with both avoidant and anxious attachment orientations. A bootstrapping procedure revealed that: (a) Love, zest, gratitude and hope fully mediated the association between avoidance and lower life satisfaction. (b) Hope, curiosity and perspective partially mediated the association between attachment anxiety and life satisfaction. These findings suggest that the mechanisms underlying life satisfaction are different for avoidant and for anxious individuals, although hope is prevalent for both attachment orientations. The theoretical and clinical implications of the findings are discussed.
There is growing interest in life satisfaction and its antecedents in the recent years (e.g., Dolan, Peasgood, & White, 2008). Papers published in psychology and other disciplines show that life satisfaction is associated with physical health and lower substance abuse, less unemployment and financial strains, better ability to meet personal standards, optimism/hope, self efficacy, more social support and less behavioral problems, and higher interpersonal and cognitive functioning (Dolan et al., 2008 and Proctor et al., 2009).
Research has also shown that for some individuals it is more difficult to achieve life satisfaction than for others. Such individual differences were related to age, gender, and ethnicity (Dolan et al., 2008 and Proctor et al., 2009), but also to personality factors. In fact, Proctor et al. (2009) argued that “personality and temperament variables were found to account for a large portion of the individual variance in well being” (p. 587), basing their claim on several youth studies (e.g., Emmons & Diener, 1985). More specifically, DeNeve and Cooper’s (1998) meta-analysis of well-being in adulthood showed that the traits most closely associated with it were repressive-defensiveness, trust, emotional stability, locus of control-chance, desire for control, hardiness, positive affectivity, self esteem, and tension.
