International Journal of Emergency Mental Health and Human Resilience
Open Access

Abstract

Statement of the Problem: Attachment has a strong relationship with happiness, psychological well-being and resilience. Attachment is applied to a sustained emotional bond between an evolving child and someone who has the duty to take care of him/her. This bond is formed when a warm, intimate and stable relationship is established between the child and mother for both of whom it is satisfactory and gratifying. In the early days of life, children internalize the availability and support of their caregivers. Children gradually form â�?�?internal working modelsâ�?. Childrenâ�?�?s expectation of availability, reliability and ability to provide safety and comfort on the part of parents is the main theme of internal working patterns. The aim of the present study was to the effectiveness of an attachment-based intervention program in improving the happiness, resilience and psychological well-being of adolescent girls. Methodology and Theoretical Orientation: The study used a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest nonequivalent control group design. The research population for this study comprised all the mothers and their adolescent daughters in Tehran, Iran. 45 eligible mothers who volunteered to participate in the research along with their daughters were chosen and randomly assigned into two experimental and waiting-list control groups. Attachment-based training package was implemented for mothers in the experimental group during 8 weekly sessions of 90 to 120 minutes each. Adolescents participating in this study completed Resilience Scale, Happiness Questionnaire and Psychological Well-Being Questionnaire in the pretest and posttest [Table 1].Table 1: Multivariate analysis of covariance to examine the effect of attachment-based intervention on happiness, resilience and well-being of adolescents Findings: The results of multivariate analysis of covariance demonstrated that the impact of attachment-based intervention program on the scores of happiness, resilience and psychological well-being of adolescents is significant after controlling the pretest effects. Conclusions: Findings of this study highlight the importance of attachment-based training to promote positive capabilities of adolescent girls, such as resilience, happiness and well-being.

Biography

Hossein Shareh is a professor of clinical psychology in the Department of Educational Science, Hakim Sabzevari University, Sabzevar, Iran. He has published over 200 articles, abstracts and presentations. His research interests and recent publications are on psychotherapy methods and techniques, resilience, attachment, mood and anxiety disorders, addiction, trauma, OCD, BDD, sexual dysfunctions, paraphilia, suicide, personality and chronic diseases (MS, diabetes).