Background: Anxiety is the most common mental disorder. Reduction of risk factors related to anxiety reduces the costs and problems. The present study was conducted to determine correlation between attachment styles (secure, ambivalent and avoidant) and anxiety dimensions (State, Trait).
Materials and Methods: This is a correlation descriptive study, in which 400 students (217 male, 183 female) from Mahabad Islamic Azad University were selected by stratified random sampling. Adult Attachment Questionnaire (AAQ Shaver and Hazan) was applied for measuring attachment styles. Anxiety Inventory (Spiel Berger State-Trait) was used to measure anxiety dimensions. Data were analyzed by software SPSS (version 14) and involved both descriptive and inferential statistics including means, standard deviations and Pearson`s correlation coefficients.
Results: There were significant correlation between secure attachment style and anxiety trait among male students, not significant correlation between avoidant attachment style and anxiety trait among male students, and significant correlation between ambivalent attachment style with anxiety trait among male students. Also, significant correlation was found between attachment style and anxiety and state among male students. The correlation between attachment styles and anxiety trait- state was not significant among female students.
Conclusion: Attachment security is a protective factor against anxiety.