Exploring the influence of family status, birth order and romantic experience of 3rd year Nursing Students on their State Adult Attachment

This study focused on the state adult attachment in its 3 domains of anxiety, avoidance and security. Previous studies have satisfactorily demonstrated how attachment affects the well-being and overall functioning of the human person. The objective of this study was to investigate whether family status, birth order and romantic experience influences attachment. Since one of the very critical professions in the Philippines is nursing, this study focused on 3rd year nursing students as its respondents. Using the State Adult Attachment Measure (SAAM), the respondents’ anxiety, avoidance and security scores were measured and compared with respect to the 3 aforementioned factors. Although limited samples were obtained that satisfied the inclusion criteria, the results indicated that the there were no significant differences among the 3 SAAM domain scores of the respondents who have different family status. However, significant differences were discovered between the anxiety scores of middle child and youngest child respondents. Furthermore, a statistically significant difference was also found in the anxiety scores and avoidance scores between respondents with and without romantic experience.