Investigation of relationships between social and emotional loneliness, adult attachment styles, life goals, and subjective well-being variables in emerging adulthood

This study aimed to examine the relationships between social and emotional loneliness, adult attachment styles, life goals and subjective well-being in emerging adulthood. The research group consists of 551 university students studying at Niğde Ömer Halisdemir University Faculty of Education. In the study, data were collected using the Personal Information Form, Social and Emotional Loneliness Scale (SELSA-S), Experiences in Close Relationships Inventory-I (YİYE-I), Life Goals Scale and Subjective Well-Being Scale (SWS). Relational screening model was used in this study. Simple linear and hierarchical regression analyzes and SPSS PROCESS macro Model 4 plug-ins were used to analyze the data. According to the results of the research, it was seen that avoidant attachment, one of the adult attachment styles, negatively and statistically significantly predicted subjective well-being and external life goals. It was found that anxious attachment negatively predicted subjective well being and positively and statistically significantly predicted social loneliness and emotional loneliness. It was found that internal life goals, which are the sub-dimensions of life goals, predict subjective well-being positively and statistically significantly, and at the same time, emotional loneliness predicts subjective well-being negatively and statistically significantly. At the same time, it was concluded that emotional loneliness had a mediating role between avoidant attachment and subjective well-being, and that both emotional and social loneliness had a mediating role between anxious attachment and subjective well-being. Keywords: Social and emotional loneliness, Adult attachment styles, Life goals, Subjective well-being