Analysis of the Relationship Between Attachment, Life Event and

Neuroticism Among Adolescents

Jingyi Zhang

School of Mechanical Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300354, China

Keywords: Attachment, Life Event, Neuroticism.

Abstract: Neuroticism in the Big Five personality theory is one of the important aspects of studying mental health.

Researchers have found a correlation between attachment types and life events and neuroticism. However,

there is still a lack of unified summary and explanation of the correlations and influencing mechanisms behind

these factors. Therefore, this article summarizes past experimental data and research results to investigate the

relationship between attachment types, life events, and adolescent neuroticism levels. The study has found

that both anxious attachment and avoidant attachment are significantly positively correlated with neuroticism,

and play a mediating role in the impact of neuroticism on psychological problems such as depression. There

is a significant positive correlation between life events and neuroticism, and neuroticism often plays a

significant mediating effect between life events and psychological problems such as depression. In the future,

with the deepening of research on attachment types and life events, it will be possible to more effectively

influence neuroticism levels and provide positive interventions for mental health.

1 INTRODUCTION

Scholars are concerned about attachment style and its

influence on individual mental health these years.

Meanwhile, neuroticism, as one of the traits in the Big

Five Personality Model, is seen as a main measure to

evaluate the situation of individual mental health.

Thus, it is possible to conduct researches in studying

the correlation between these two elements.

With the rapid development of the society and

technology, the living environment changes are more

and more common to be seen among the young

population, and it is more possible for children to

experience moving houses, changing schools, and

rebuilding social relationships frequently by

following their parents’ working areas adjustment

than in the past. These changes in the external

objective environment, which happened in the period

of childhood, may also cause insecurity and

instability. Thus, it is possible that life events bring

influence on the neuroticism level of children in their

mental development.

By studying how attachment types and life events

jointly affect children's neuroticism levels, this study

can help understand the key factors in children's

emotional and behavioral development, and provide

a theoretical basis for early intervention in mental

health.

The study aims to explore whether there are

factors in attachment and environmental changes that

significantly affect children's neuroticism levels

through the organization and analysis of historical

experimental results and literature, and provide

relevant suggestions for future interventions on

children's neuroticism levels and mental health from

these two perspectives.

2 RESEARCH SUBJECT

2.1 Key Concepts

2.1.1 Attachment Style

Attachment usually means a long-term emotional

connection formed between an individual and others,

usually including two dimensions called attachment

anxiety and attachment avoidance. Attachment style

is used to describe the individual's different responses

to emotional needs and intimate contact in intimate

relationships. Attachment theory provides an

important framework for understanding and

interpreting behavioral patterns in intimate

relationships, especially when faced with external

stimuli or relationship conflicts, where different

406

Zhang, J.

Analysis of the Relationship Between Attachment, Life Event and Neuroticism Among Adolescents.

DOI: 10.5220/0014116300004942

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Applied Psychology and Marketing Management (APMM 2025), pages 406-411

ISBN: 978-989-758-791-7

attachment styles can explain individual coping

strategies and emotional responses.

2.1.2 Life Event

The concept of life events was first proposed by Henry

Holmes and Richard Rahe in 1967. They developed

the Life Events Scale by studying the impact of

different life events on health, which is used to assess

the potential impact of significant events experienced

by individuals on their physical health and mental

health. Life events refer to significant changes and

impacts that individuals experience throughout their

life cycle, which typically lead to significant

psychological, emotional, or social responses,

involving aspects such as family, emotions, life, and

work (Holmes & Rahe, 1967). Life events include

both positive and negative categories, such as job

success and the death of a loved one. Different types

of life events trigger individuals to experience

psychological adaptation processes and stress

responses in different directions (Kanner et al., 1981).

The theory of life events helps to explain the

psychological reactions and health status of

individuals when facing significant changes or

stressors. Life event is widely applied in psychology,

sociology, and health research, becoming one of the

core theories for studying stress and adaptation. By

studying the relationship between life events and the

level of health, psychologists can better understand the

sources of stress and their impact on physical and

mental health, providing a theoretical basis for clinical

intervention and mental health management.

2.1.3 Neuroticism of the Big Five Personality

Model

According to the research results of Cattell and the

Big Five model, human personality can be classified

into five main dimensions for observation, namely

neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness,

and conscientiousness. Neuroticism is defined as an

emotional trait in which individuals tend to face kinds

of negative emotions such as anxiety, depression and

anger, and have stronger responses to stressors.

Previous studies have shown that individuals with

higher levels of neuroticism are more likely to exhibit

weaker emotional regulation abilities when facing

stress. Therefore, interventions for neuroticism often

help promote the development of mental health.

2.2 Classifications of Attachment Style

According to the theory first proposed by Bowlby, J.,

attachment style is categorized as secure attachment

and insecure attachment which includes anxious

attachment and avoidant attachment. After that,

Bartholomew, K. and Hall, L. provided a more

detailed extension of adult attachment theory,

proposing a four-quadrant model of adult attachment

types based on the origin. They extracted anxiety and

avoidance from attachment and drew a coordinate

axis that divides the attachment style into four types

based on the level of these two elements.

2.2.1 Anxious Attachment

Individuals with anxious attachment may experience

inconsistent emotional responses in interactions with

their primary caregiver, tend to exhibit strong

insecurity in intimate relationships, overly rely on the

other person, and often worry that the other person

will abandon them. Anxious attachment sufferers

have a strong dependence on intimate relationships

and crave more attention and affirmation. They

usually hope that their partner can always care about

them, and often overly rely on their partner's

emotional support. These individuals often

experience extreme emotional fluctuations and

exhibit high sensitivity to conflicts or apathy in

intimate relationships (Anagnostopoulos & Botse,

2016). Even small changes in relationships can

trigger their anxiety and unease. Anxious attachment

sufferers often overinterpret their partners' emotional

expressions, fearing neglect or abandonment, and

may exhibit excessive attention-seeking or

attachment behaviors. They need to constantly

receive emotional confirmation from their partner in

order to feel safe and satisfied.

When the environment cannot meet their needs,

they are more inclined to generate unstable emotions,

which may lead to the development of high levels of

neuroticism. Meanwhile, neurotic traits increase the

perception of relationship insecurity and excessive

emotional reactions, making individuals more likely

to form anxious attachments.

2.2.2 Avoidant Attachment

Avoidant attachment typically manifests as

avoidance or estrangement from intimate

relationships, often associated with an individual's

early experiences of overly indifferent or neglected

parenting environments. Avoidant attachment

individuals typically exhibit lower emotional needs,

are cautious about relying on others, tend to maintain

emotional independence and distance, and avoid

overexposure to their emotional needs, especially in

intimate relationships. They may feel uncomfortable

with their partner's intimate behavior and exhibit

Analysis of the Relationship Between Attachment, Life Event and Neuroticism Among Adolescents

407

distant or indifferent behavior. Avoidant attachment

sufferers may adopt avoidance strategies when facing

emotional conflicts, avoiding facing problems, or

discussing emotional issues. They tend to protect

themselves from potential harm by maintaining

emotional isolation, often unwilling to seek help or

support from others, and even in difficult times, they

may handle problems alone, demonstrating strong

self-dependence (Anagnostopoulos & Botse, 2016).

On the other hand, individuals with high

neuroticism may also cope with stress by avoiding

negative emotions, which may lead to the

development of avoidant attachment patterns. If

individuals with high neuroticism choose to withdraw

when faced with emotional distress, it will further

exacerbate their tendency to avoid attachment.

2.2.3 Secure Attachment

People with secure attachment often have lower

levels of both avoidance and anxiety. At the same

time, they are more likely to have a lower level of

neuroticism, exhibiting higher emotional health and

adaptability in adult intimate relationships. Their

stable emotional characteristics often enable them to

acquire good emotional regulation abilities and are

less likely to interact with neuroticism. Therefore,

there will be no discussion on secure attachment in

this study.

2.2.4 FearfuL Attachment

Individuals with fearful attachment style are

influenced by a combination of high levels of

avoidance and anxiety. This combination makes the

mutual influence mechanism between fearful

attachment and neuroticism diverse. Scholars can

study these two factors by separately discussing the

influence of anxious attachment and neuroticism, as

well as the influence of avoidance attachment and

neuroticism. And that is why fearful attachment is

excluded from the research range.

3 RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN

ATTACHMENT STYLE AND

NEUROTICISM

3.1 Overview

Based on existing researches, most of the articles

declaim that both anxious and avoidant attachment

styles have positive and significant relations with

neuroticism. For example, according to Kaur and

Soni's research in 2024, they found a result that could

confirm this finding (Kaur & Soni, 2024). They

conducted a cross-sectional study that included 77

heterogeneous couples aged 25-45. All participants

completed three questionnaires, including the Adult

Attachment Scale, Relationship Assessment Scale,

and NEO-FFI. The main analysis is based on

Spearman's Rank Correlation and the Mann-Whitney

U test. According to research, it has also been found

that, especially when insecure attachment styles and

neuroticism work together on certain mental health

indicators, they often interact with each other, and

produce a mediating effect at the same time

(Mavrandrea & Giovazolias, 2022). For example, the

research conducted by Mavrandrea and Giovazolias

on depressive symptoms, studied the effects of

neuroticism acting alone on depressive symptoms and

attachment and neuroticism acting simultaneously on

depressive symptoms by controlling for the variable

attachment. The results showed that the anxiety and

avoidance of adult attachment styles mediate the

relationship between neuroticism and depressive

symptoms in the big five personality traits.

Moreover, few studies have separately

investigated the impact mechanism of avoidant

attachment on neuroticism levels (Shaver & Brennan,

1992), and avoidant attachment is often studied

together with anxious attachment as an insecure

attachment in relation to neuroticism levels. Although

people with avoidant attachment are often believed to

tend to suppress emotional expression, reduce the

intensity of emotional reactions, and exhibit relatively

low levels of neuroticism when dealing with emotions

and stress, both avoidant attachment and anxious

attachment have been shown to be positively

correlated with neurological levels in existing

research. However, under the same experimental

design, the correlation between avoidant attachment

and neuroticism is generally not as close and strong

as the correlation between anxious attachment and

neuroticism level.

3.2 Detailed Examination

The study conducted by Zhang, Z., Zhang, X., Wang,

X. et al. in 2023 also confirmed this conclusion

(Zhang et al., 2023). The study used a questionnaire

to investigate the relationship between neuroticism

and intolerance towards uncertainty, as well as the

role of attachment style in it. This study involved 643

high school and college students aged 15 to 24, with

a male-to-female ratio of 1:2. Teenagers in this age

group often face more environmental changes and

APMM 2025 - International Conference on Applied Psychology and Marketing Management

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external uncertainties, which can easily lead to

feelings of confusion.

In the study, participants were asked to complete

various self-evaluation scales, including Big Five

Inventory-2 (BFI-2), Experiences in Close

Relationships Inventory (ECR), and Entrance of

Uncertainty Scale-12 (IUS-12), to assess their

neuroticism levels, attachment styles, and tolerance

for uncertainty. This process involves using

demographic research papers to collect necessary

basic data, including gender, age, ethnicity, family

location, only child status, education level, grade

level, major, and other demographic factors.

After completing the questionnaire information

collection, SPSS was used to conduct an independent

sample t-test, together with analysis of variance and

correlation analysis on the valid data obtained. The

Process plugin and Bootstrap method were used to

examine the mediating role of attachment style

between neuroticism and intolerance of uncertainty.

The difference is considered statistically significant

with P<0.05, which means that it is reasonable to be

accepted as a true hypothesis.

The research results found that the Pearson’s

correlation coefficient (represented by “r”) between

attachment avoidance and neuroticism was

0.1<r=0.250<0.3, indicating a weak positive

correlation between attachment avoidance and

neuroticism; The “r” between attachment anxiety and

neuroticism is 0.5<r=0.534<0.7, indicating a

significant positive correlation between attachment

anxiety and neuroticism; P<0.01 indicates a low

significance of the null hypothesis. The mediation

effect test results showed that attachment anxiety

partially mediated between neuroticism and

intolerance of uncertainty, accounting for 40.91% of

the total effect. However, the mediating effect of

avoidant attachment between neuroticism and

intolerance of uncertainty is not significant and can

be considered negligible.

Meanwhile, in another study conducted by Shaver

and Brennan, they explored the relationship between

neuroticism as a personality trait and an individual's

attachment style, particularly anxious attachment.

This type of research can elucidate the essence of

attachment styles, ensuring that they do not replicate

existing structures. This study examined the

association between attachment measurement,

quality of relationship, measurement of outcome, and

the Big Five personality traits assessed by the NEO

Personality Inventory. The NEO scale is generally

less effective than attachment style measurement in

predicting the outcomes of romantic relationships,

possibly due to the higher specificity of attachment

measurement. Specifically, people with high

neuroticism levels often have a higher possibility to

experience negative emotions (such as anxiety,

depression, anger, etc.) and exhibit strong feelings of

insecurity and emotional reactions in intimate

relationships, which is particularly related to anxious

attachment types.

Additionally, this article suggests a significant

positive correlation between neuroticism and

attachment types, particularly anxiety attachment.

People with high neuroticism are more likely to have

anxious attachment styles, which can lead to

emotional instability, relationship conflict, and lower

relationship satisfaction in intimate relationships. In

other words, neuroticism is not only a potential

predictor of attachment style, but may also interact

with attachment style to jointly influence an

individual's romantic relationship outcomes. In this

study, the romantic relationship outcome is measured

by the satisfaction questionnaire taken from the larger

Relationship Rating Scale (RRF) developed by Davis

and Todd (1982), which contains seven subscales,

and only two of them (satisfaction and closeness)

were used in the study.

4 RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN

LIFE EVENT AND

NEUROTICISM

According to most of the existing research results, it

is basically confirmed that there is a remarkable

positive correlation between the amount of negative

life events and the level of neuroticism (Tang et al.,

2013). For example, in the research conducted by Liu,

S. J. and Hu, Y. Q. on studying the impact of life

events and neuroticism on depression symptoms

among college students, they conducted a survey on

330 college students using measurements such as the

Eysenck Personality Inventory and the Adolescent

Life Events Scale, and conducted correlation analysis

on the results (Liu et al., 2018). In the end, they found

that life events and neuroticism were significantly and

positively correlated with depression. Moreover, the

results of the mediation test indicate that neuroticism

significantly mediates the pathway from life events to

depression, which means that life events will

indirectly affect college students' depression by

affecting their neuroticism levels. Similarly, Tang, H.

B. and Luo, H. J. conducted an experiment in 2013 to

study the effects of life events, neuroticism, and

coping styles on negative emotions among college

Analysis of the Relationship Between Attachment, Life Event and Neuroticism Among Adolescents

409

students. They also concluded that life events affect

negative emotions through the mediation of

neuroticism. These results can directly prove that a

notable positive correlation between life events and

neuroticism level exists.

This conclusion can also be proven by the study

of Yao, C. and You, X. (Yao et al., 2019) They

conducted a survey on 882 college students from

various aspects such as life events, neuroticism,

depression, and self-esteem. In the end, from the

experimental result, they discovered that there were

significant pairwise correlations between these

factors, and both neuroticism and life events play

moderating roles in the formation of depression.

The studies above could also introduce the

possibility, that life events and neuroticism can

interact and affect mental health together. Moreover,

there are some other researches that could provide the

evidences. For instance, the research conducted by

Zhang, X. H. and Luo, Y. H. has given an analysis of

life events and emotional experiences of high school

students, as well as the role of neuroticism (Zhang et

al., 2019). In the result of this article, neuroticism can

enhance the positive predictive effect of negative life

events on negative emotional experiences, and

weaken the positive predictive effect of positive life

events on positive emotional experiences. In addition,

neuroticism plays a moderating role between life

events and high school students' emotional

experiences.

5 DISCUSSION AND

SUGGESTION

5.1 General Result

Based on the relevant experiments and their results

covered in this article, the following overall

conclusion can be drawn through comprehensive

analysis: insecure attachment types and life events are

both important factors affecting individual

neuroticism levels. Specifically, anxious attachment

and avoidant attachment can affect an individual's

level of neuroticism, especially among students in

high schools and colleges. The validation results in

different age groups indicate that these insecure

attachment patterns often work together with

neuroticism levels, thereby significantly affecting

mental health and causing symptoms such as

depression.

In addition, the number and nature of life events

have been shown to have a significant impact on

neuroticism levels in different groups. Among the

population of high school and college students,

individuals who frequently experience life events,

especially negative ones, have significantly higher

levels of neuroticism compared to other individuals.

This result indicates that the impact of life events is

similar in both adolescent and adult populations, and

the nature and quantity of events are important factors

affecting individual neuroticism levels.

5.2 Future Direction

According to the conclusion of this article, future

research can further explore the relationship between

life events experienced by adolescents and different

attachment types, in order to investigate whether life

events have a significant impact on attachment

formation and jointly affect neuroticism levels, as

well as the moderating effect of different attachment

types on the relationship between life events and

neuroticism in adolescents. For example, anxious

attachment and avoidant attachment may have

different emotional regulation mechanisms when

adolescents cope with the stress of life events, which

in turn affect their neuroticism levels through

different pathways. Therefore, it is necessary to

further clarify how these attachment types affect

emotional regulation and stress coping.

In addition, future researches should focus on the

multidimensional impact of life events, including

negative life events, positive life events, traumatic

events, and small changes in daily life, to explore

their differential effects on neuroticism levels,

especially the cumulative effects and persistence of

life events on emotional fluctuations. Cross-cultural

research is also an important direction for the future.

Studying the differences in attachment types and life

events under different cultural backgrounds and their

impact on neuroticism levels can help scholars

understand how cultural differences regulate the

mechanisms of adolescent emotions and mental

health. Finally, research on application is also worth

paying attention to, especially through tracking

studies to verify the impact of accumulated life events

on neuroticism levels. These studies will help provide

more precise mental health intervention strategies for

the adolescent population, promoting their emotional

stability and comprehensive development of mental

health.

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6 CONCLUSION

This study explores the impact of attachment types

and life events on adolescent neuroticism levels.

Based on existing research findings, it has been found

that both the type of insecure attachment and the

number of life events are significantly positively

correlated with the level of neuroticism in

adolescents, and the mechanism of their combined

effects can have a significant impact on mental health

and depression.

Based on these findings, this study suggests that

families and schools strengthen parent-child

communication and emotional support to promote the

formation of secure attachment. At the same time, it

is recommended to avoid frequent changes in the

living environment and sudden changes in the quality

of life of adolescents as much as possible, in order to

reduce excessive instability and insecurity in their

psychological development and help them deal with

the emotional distress caused by negative life events.

In addition, it is valuable to strengthen mental health

education to help teenagers improve their emotional

management abilities and cope with challenges in

life.

Empirical evidence is provided in this study for

the intervention of adolescent mental health, which

helps to improve the emotional stability and mental

health of the adolescent population, and promote their

development of physical and mental health. In the

future, with the deepening of research on attachment

types and life events, it is expected to find effective

ways to regulate and improve the mental health level

of adolescents, and have a positive impact on their

growth and social adaptation.

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