The Prediction of Social Problem-Solving Skills Based on Birth Order and Attachment Styles

doi:10.4236/aasoci.2014.41003

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Advances in Applied Sociology

2014. Vol.4, No.1, 15-19

Published Online January 201 4 in SciRes (http://www.scirp.org/journal/aasoci) http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/aasoci.2014.41003

The Prediction of Social Problem-Solving Skills Based on Birth

Order and Attachment Styles

Khadije h A bolmaa li1∗, Leila Keivan2, Bita Ajilchi3

1Assistant Professor of Educational Psychology, Roudehen Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

2MA in General Psychology, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

3Department of Psychology, Faculty of Human Science, Science and Research Branch University, Islamic Azad

University (IA U), Te h ran , Iran

Email: *[email protected]

Received December 2nd, 2013; revised January 2nd, 2014; accepted January 9th, 2014

mons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, pro-

vided the original work is prop erly cited. In accordance of the Creative Commons Attr ibution License all Copy-

The purpose of this research was to predict social problem-solving skills in two dimensions (functional

and dysfunctional), based on birth order and attachment styles in university students. For the study, 234

students were randomly selected at Azad University in the Science & Research Branch, who completed

two questionnaires: Hazen & Shaver’s Attachment Styles Inventory (AAI) and D’Zurilla et al.’s Social

Problem Solving Skills Inventory-Revised (SPSI_R). Data were analyzed with multiple regression and

MANOVA tests. The results revealed that avoidant and anxious attachment styles had significant and

positive relationship with dysfunctional social problem solving, and had significant and negative rela-

tionship with functional social problem solving skills; and birth order significantly predicted dysfunction-

al social problem solving. Also, a comparison of the first and last children showed that a significant dif-

ference existed between the mean of first and last children in avoidant attachment style (first children

were higher than that of last children). But there is no significant difference between first and last children

in the dimensions of social problem-solving skills.

Keywords: Social Problem-Solving Skills; Attachment Styles; Birth Order

Introduction

During history, psychologists, philosophers and educational

practitioners have stated that the ability to solve problems is

one of the most crucial issues related to humankind’s welfare.

Social problem solving is the process by which people attempt

to identify or discover effective or functional solutions to prob-

lems that they experience in everyday living. Good or effective

problem solvers are likely to function more competently and

experience less psychological distress when encountering dif-

ficult or stressful problems as compared to poor or ineffective

problem solvers (D’Zurilla, Nezu, & M aydeu-Olivares, 2002: p.

1). Social problem solving (SPS) is a cognitive-behavioral pro-

cess and is a synonym for coping with stress and interpersonal

communication. In D’Zurilla et al.’s model, SPS is measured in

5 scales: Positive Problem Orientation (PPO), Negative Prob-

lem Orientation (NPO), Rational Problem Solving (RPS), Im-

pulsivity/Carelessness Style (ICS) and Avoidant Style (AS)

(Chang, D’Zurilla, & Sanna, 2004). PPO and RPS are effective

problem-solving mechanisms and AS, ICS and NPO are inef-

fective or poor problem-solving mechanisms. PPO is a con-

structive problem-solving cognitive set that involves the gener-

al disposition to: appraise a problem as a “challenge”, believe

that problems are solvable (“optimism”), believe in one’s per-

sonal ability to solve problems successfully (believe that suc-

cessful problem solving takes time and effort), and commit

oneself to solving problems with dispatch rather than avoiding

them. In contrast, NPO is a dysfunctional or inhibitive cogni-

tive-emotional set that involves the general tendency to view a

problem as a significant threat to well-being, to doubt one’s

own personal ability to solve problems successfully, and to

become easily frustrated and upset when confronted with prob-

lems. RPS is a constructive problem-solving style that is de-

fined as the rational, deliberate, and systematic application of

effective problem-solving skills. IPS is a dysfunctional prob-

lem-solving pattern characterized by active attempts to apply

problem-solving strategies and techniques, but these attempts

are narrow, impulsive, careless, hurried, and incomplete (D’Zu-

rilla et al., 2002).

AS is another dysfunctional problem-solving pattern charac-

terized by procrastination, passivity or inaction and dependency.

The avoidant problem solver prefers to avoid problems rather

than confront them head on, puts off problem solving as long as

possible, waits for problems to resolve themselves, and at-

tempts to shift the responsibility for solving his or her problems

to other people (Chang et al., 2004: p. 15). Undoubtedly, one of

the most important changes in modern and contemporary psy-

chology fields is the development of the Bowlby Attachment

Theory; attachment is an emotional bond to another person and

*Corresponding author.

OPEN ACCESS 15

K. ABOLMAALI ET AL.

is used to describe a special kind of relationship between two

people, which can be referred as a type of “affection bond”, for

example, a baby seeks closeness to someone. This has a great

role in the emotional development of children. According to the

Bowlby theory, the process of attachment is one of the most

vital prerequisites for effective development (Ghorbani, 2002).

Ainsworth et al. (1978) described three major styles of attach-

ment: secure attachment, ambivalent-insecure attachment, and

avoidant-insecure attachment. Later, Main and Solomon (1986)

proposed that inconsistent behavior on the part of parents

might be a contributing factor in this style of attachment. In

later research, Main and Hesse (1990) argued that parents who

acted as figures of both fear and reassurance to a child contri-

buted to a disorganized attachment style. Because the child

feels both comforted and frightened by the parents’ confusion

results.

People with a secure attachment style have a considerable

difference in their approach to overcoming problems in com-

parison with people with anxiety or avoidant attachment styles.

Based on their theory, secure people show little sign of mental

problems when they are faced with problems. The experience

of a secure and supportive relationship with the mother in

childhood makes people more secure and enables them to

achieve high potential self-confidence resources in this regard.

These people will be more able to accept personal and social

responsibilities because they are more able to contend with hard

situations and problems. They can also find better solutions for

their pitfalls (Gillath, Mikulincher, & Shaver, 2001). Fullam

(2002) also stated that people with secure attachments acted

better in their interpersonal relations, solving social problems,

challenging tensions, and controlling their excitement better

than people with insecure attachment. These people also tended

to have better physical and spiritual health as well. The impact

of attachment on cognitive processes has a relationship with the

quality and quantity of a person’s received stimulants. In fact,

secure children discover that their environment is secure in

comparison with insecure ones. The degree of received infor-

mation and stimulants in these children is higher than that in in-

secure children and this makes them able to apply high-poten-

tial verbal, imaginary and communicative skills (Vermigli &

Toni, 2004).

The link between secure and fearful attachment, and social

loneliness was mediated, in part, by social skills (DiTommaso,

Barnnen-McNulty, Ross, & Burgess, 2003).

Related Literature

Allen (2002) showed t hat the students’ adjust ment had a po si-

tive relationship with the attachment style of adults and the

relationship between insecure attachments was negative with

social a djustment. He s howed that sec ure attachme nt was a sig-

nificant predictor for the students’ social problem-solving skills.

Vafaeian (2006) carried out a study of the relationship between

social skills and students’ attachment styles and showed that

there was a significance relationship between their attachment

styles and social skills; in other words, when the scores of the

students in the secure style were increased, it influenced their

social skills. On the other hand, increasing the avoidant and

ambivalent style scores reduced the social skills. Besharat &

Shalchi (2007) emphasized the significant relationship between

attachment styles and stress-coping mechanisms. They conclud-

ed that there was a relationship between secure attachment

styles with emotional strategies for coping with stress. Kobak,

et al. (1993) showed that there was a positive relationship be-

tween i nsecure attac hment and the ability to problem-solve and

the experience of anger. Another research paper, with the aim

of studying the relationship between attachment styles and

stress-coping strategies with anger control among the students,

indicated that there was a direct relationship between problem-

based stress coping strategy and secure attachment, and emo-

tional coping stress with insecure attachment (Rafiee-Tari,

2008). Alfred Adler, an Australian psychologist and contempo-

rary with Sigmund Freud and Karl Yong, stated that birth order

influenced people’s personalities. Because the birth order caus-

es children to have different attitudes towards their parents,

they will have different childhood situations assisting in their

personality formation. Adler (cited in Harris, 2006) stated that

birth order had a positive impact on lifestyle. The results of a

study by Zaeri (2003) had the aim of the determination of group

acceptance relations hips and social skills wit h birth order among

high school students, and showed that there was no relationship

between the social skills of young people according to birth

order. Also, another study stated that birth order did not impac t

on social skill dimensions (Riggio & Sotoodeh, 1989).

The main question of this study is whether social problem-

solving skills can be predicted by birth order and attachment

styles in adults.

Research hypotheses are:

1) The birth order and attachment styles can predict social

problem-solving in two dimensions of functional and dysfunc-

tional styles.

2) There is a significant difference between attachment styles

and social problem-solving skills of the first and last child.

Method

Procedure

The method of this research is descriptive. The statistical

population included the whole student population of Tehran’s

Research and Science University during 2012-2013. The sam-

ple was randomly selected by a cluster method. The study in-

volved 155 girls and 234 boys.

Instruments

Adults’ Attachment Styles Inventory: (AAI)

This questionnaire was devised by Hazen and Shaver (1987)

and has been used in Iran on the nurses of governmental hos-

pitals of Isfahan City (Rahimian et al., 2006). This question-

naire was a self-report scale, which included 15 items. The

scoring of the test was based on the Likert scale from never (0)

to fairly always (4). The scores of the sub-scale attachment

were obtained by the mean five questions in every sub-scale of

the test, as follows: To determine the attachment style of every

person, the digit values of the choices related to every level

were summed together and then divided by 5 in this case. The

subjects were asked to choose questions defining their traits

better in this regard. The explanatory factor analysis of this

questionnaire was carried out by Collins and Read (1990) and

three factors of attachment were extracted in this case.

Short Form of Social Problem-Solving Revised Version:

(SPSI-R)

In order to evaluate the ability of the participants’ social

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K. ABOLMAALI ET AL.

problem-solving skills, a short form of 25 questions devised by

D’Zurilla, Nezu and Mydieu-Elivares standardized by Taghilou

(2009) was applied in this case. This questionnaire had five

sub-scales, these sub-scales are: Positive orientation towards

the problem, Negative orientation towards the problem, rational

problem-solving style, Avoidant style and Impulsivity–careless-

ness styles. The whole coefficients of the above mentioned

items were as follows, respectively: 0.68, 0.75, 0.62, 0.68, and

0.68. The total coefficients obtained for the related tool were

0.69. In addition, after processing the model from the con-

firmed factorial analysis, the indices of processing were ob-

tained at suitable levels for the related test (Taghilou, 2009)

Three scales were for the inefficient or non-functional methods

in relation to the avoidant style and Impulsivity-carelessness

style affairs and two scales were subjected to the efficient or

functional methods of the positive orientation in terms of the

problem-solving process (Abolmaali, 2010).

Findings

In Table 1 descriptive indices of studying variables were re-

ported.

According to the above table, it can be stated that all of the

variables tended to normal distribution, due to skewness and

kurtosis which were between −1 and +1.

First hypothesis: B irth order and attachment styles (avoidant,

anxious and secure) can predict social problem solving (in 2

dimensions: functional and non-functional) in students of the

university.

For the testing of this hypothesis in this research, multiple

regression analysis with a stepwise method was used.

According to Table 2, the β coefficient showed that avoidant

and anxious styles have significantly negative relationships

with functional social problem solving, whereas avoidant and

anxious styles have significantly positive relationships with

dysfunctional social problem solving. Also, birth order signifi-

cantly predict dysfunctional social problem solving, so that in

first children dysfunctional social problem solving, more than

last children.

Second hypothesis: there is a significant difference between

first and last children in attachment styles.

For consideration of this hypothesis, firstly the assumptions

of MANOVA were evaluated, such as homogeneity of variance

and covariance and homogeneity of slope of regression line,

and then MANOVA was used for analysis of the data.

As shown in Table 3, because value of Wilk’s Lambada

(0.980) and value of F = 1.843, it could be said that the effect of

the group on the social problem solving and attachment styles

is not significant and it can be stated that the difference of the

combination of dependent variables in the groups is not signif-

icant. As a result, there is no significant difference between

combination of components of attachment styles in first and last

children. The results of the test between subject effects for the

evaluation of the effect of each dependent variable are given

separately in Table 4.

As shown in Table 4, the between-groups tests showed that

differences in avoidant skills are significant (sig < 0.05) and the

mean scores in the first children were more than last children.

The third hypothesis was that there is a significant difference

between first and last children in social problem-solving skills.

For consideration of this hypothesis, firstly the assumptions

of MANOVA were evaluated, such as the homogeneity of va-

Table 1.

The descriptive indices of attachement styles and social problem solv-

ing.

Variables

Descriptive Indices of variables

Mean Standard

Deviation Skewness kurtosis

Secure attachment style 3.29 0.592 −0.041 −0.027

Avoidant attachment style 2.73 0.715 0.214 0.068

Anxious attachme nt st yle 2.62 0.733 0.163 −0.562

Functional social

problem s ol ving 3.50 0.649 −0.286 −0.143

Dysfunctional social

problem s ol ving 2.24 0.583 0.635 0.278

Table 2.

Summery of regression analysis for prediction of social problem solv-

ing (functional and disfunctio nal) b ased on attache ment styles (avoid ant,

anxious and secur e) and birth order.

Variables

prediction of social problem s ol ving based on attachm ent

styles

Spsa B β t sig

Constant functional 1.761 - 4.62 0.000

dysfunctional 1.158 - 4.92 0.000

Secure style functional 0.063 0.062 0.0764 0.446

dysfunctional 0.036 0.037 0.572 0.568

Avoidante

style

functional −0.181 −0.150 −1.999 0.046

dysfunctional 0.108 0.138 2.005 0.042

Anxious style functional −0.144 −0.173 −2.107 0.037

dysfunctional 0.213 0.276 4.426 0.000

Birth order functional 0.010 0.008 0.107 0.915

dysfunctional 0.139 0.131 1.993 0.048

asocial problem solving. functional SPSS {R = 0.210; R2 = 0.044; adjusted R2 =

0.034; F = 4.3333** P < 0.05, **; P <0.01}. dysfunctional SPSS {R = 0.315; R2 =

0.099; adjusted R2 = 0.09 0; F = 10.55** P < 0.05, **; P < 0.01}.

Table 3.

Multivariate test.

effects Wilk’s Lamda test

value F df df o f error sig size effect

sex 0.980 1.843 3 273 0.140 0.020

Table 4.

Between subjects effects.

source

Between subjects effects

Dependent

variable Ss df1 df2 MS F

Birth Avoidant sty l e 2.321 1 275 2.32 ∗4.62

order Secure t style 0.08 1 275 0.08 0.225

Anxious style 0.144 1 275 0.144 0.253

riance and covariance, and homogeneity of slope of regression

line, and then MANOVA was used for data analysis.

OPEN ACCESS 17

K. ABOLMAALI ET AL.

As shown in Tabl e 5, because the significance levels related

to tests of MANOVA (Wilk’s Lambda = 0.981, F = 2.648 and p

= 0.073) it can be said that the effect of the group on social

problem solving is not significant and it can be stated that the

difference between the combination of components of social

problem solving in groups is not significant. As a result, there is

no significant difference between components of social prob-

lem-solving skills in the first and last children. The results test

of between subjects effects for the evaluation the effect of each

dependent variable are given separately in Table 6.

As shown in Table 6, the between-groups differences in

functional and dysfunctional social problem solving are not

significant (sig > 0.05) and the mean scores in the first and last

children are not significant.

Discussion

The findings of the present study showed that avoidant and

anxious attachment styles had significant and positive relation-

ship with dysfunctional social problem solving, and had signifi-

cant and negative relationship with functional social problem

solving skills. The results are consistent with that of Besharat &

Shalchi (2007), Rafiee-Tari (2008) and Kobak, et al. (1993).

Also results revealed that differences in avoidant attachment

styles in first and last children were significant, so that in the

first children mea ns of avoidant a ttachment style were more t han

last children; and differences in functional and dysfunctional

social problem solving were not significant in the first and last

children. Besharat & Shalchi (2007) emphasized on t he signifi-

cant relationship between attachment styles and stress-coping

mechanisms.

The obtained results of the present study are consistent with

the studies carried out by Kobak et al. (1993) and Rafiee Tari

(2008). It seems that the insecure attachment style can cause the

formation of weak communicative skills, making inefficient

social problem-solving skills. In other words, they will have

weak social cognition in this regard. Social cognition requires

social information regarding the most accurate processing in

this case because it should be able to respond to the require-

ments in this related setting (Abolmaali, 2010). Hence, people

with insecure attachment styles will have weak social problem-

solving skills.

The results of the present study show that there is a differ-

ence between the first and last offspring in terms of avoidant

attachment styles; in other words, the first offspring often uses

the avoidant method. The results of the research can be consis-

tent with the viewpoints of Adler who believed that the first

offspring often felt the changes in their own establishment in

the family. Some research findings show that the older children

are usually susceptible to anxiety and this may reflect the lack

of experience and confidence among these people and parents

(Karimi, 2003). This lack of experience in the mothers may be

the first essential reason why the insecure attachment style may

be formed among children in this regard.

Also, the results showed that there was no obvious difference

between the first and last offspring in terms of the social prob-

lem-solving skills variables. The findings of the study are con-

sistent with research of Zaeri (2003), Riggio and Sotoodeh’s

(1989). It can be said that due to, on the one hand, the impor-

tance of the exciting experiences of childhood in the formation

of excitement, and on the other hand, increased statistics of life

problems, it is suggested that educational courses could be very

Table 5.

Multivariate test.

effects Wilk’s Lamda test

value F df df o f error sig size effect

sex 0.981 2.648 2 247 0.073 0.019

Table 6.

Between subjects effects.

source

Between subjects effects

Dependent

variable Ss df1 df2 MS F

Birth Functional 0.557 1 275 0.557 1.227

order Dysfunctional 0.838 275 0.838 2.359

effective for mothers to enable awareness of their role in nur-

turing their children to promote healthy attachment styles. This

will help mothers to improve their interaction skills with their

children and help their children to be secure in their attachment

to them.

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