Secure attachment and life satisfaction after the Kahramanmaraş earthquake: The mediating roles of resilience, self-alienation, and interpersonal sensitivity

This study examined the serial-multiple mediating roles of psychological resilience, self-alienation, and interpersonal sensitivity in the relationship between secure attachment styles and life satisfaction among university students. In this context, the study presents a theoretically original framework by addressing three psychological variables within the same model in the post-earthquake sample. The study sample consisted of 478 university students, of whom 316 were women (66.1%) and 162 were men (33.9%). All of the participants were either trapped under rubble or stranded in severely damaged buildings during the Kahramanmaraş earthquake on 6 February. The mean age of the participants was 22.3 years. The significance of the mediating effects was tested using the PROCESS macro program (Model 81). The results indicated that secure attachment predicted life satisfaction. The results reveal that secure attachment directly predicts life satisfaction, and that this effect occurs sequentially through psychological resilience, subsequent self-alienation, and interpersonal sensitivity. These findings indicate that psychological resilience, self-alienation, and interpersonal sensitivity play an important role in understanding the effect of secure attachment on life satisfaction. The results of this study are expected to contribute to the development of mental health services aimed at increasing life satisfaction, particularly among university students who have experienced traumatic events such as earthquakes. Due to the cross-sectional design of the study, no causal inferences can be made.