Relationship Between Attachment Styles, Dimensions of Epistemic Trust and Hyper-Independence Among Emerging Adults

The study aims To examine the relationship between attachment styles, dimensions of epistemic trust, and hyper-independence among emerging adults and If significant relationship exists then, to investigate how dimensions of epistemic trust mediate the relationship between attachment styles and hyper-independence in emerging adults. Approval from the Departmental Scientific Committee has been obtained first, followed by approval from the Institutional Research Committee. Permission for using the assessment  tools has been given from the authors. Following this, ethical clearance has been attained from the Institutional Ethics Committee. After this, the study will be registered with the Clinical Trial Registry- India. Henceforth, the data collection will be initiated after approval from the Institutional Ethics Committee and CTRI registration. Recruitment of emerging adults will be carried out through flyers sent online to students across the MAHE campus with brief descriptions about the purpose, inclusion criteria, and contact details. Individuals who are interested and meet the criteria would be given further study details and prior attaining of informed consent will be ensured before participating in the study. Eligible participants will be identified and provided with an overview of the study. They will be assured that their participation is entirely voluntary. Data collection can be effectively achieved by starting with one-on-one collection where the researcher is present, or by approaching small groups (such as peers in a library orneighborhood) to introduce the study and facilitate on-site completion. Finally, researchers should maintain personal weekly targets (e.g., 150 forms per person) to ensure the completion of the proposed sample size of the study. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 26 to analyze data, “Anderson-Darling Test” to test “Normality”, “Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation” to examine the relationship between attachment styles, epistemic trust, and hyper-independence, “Multiple Linear Regression Analysis” used to investigate how dimensions of epistemic trust mediate the relationship between attachment styles and hyper-independence. Criteria for proceeding with mediation analysis require statistically significant evidence that suggests that the indirect path is non-zero. Bootstrapping method will be used to test the significance of the indirect effect. p < 0.05 set as the ‘level of significance’ for all analyses. Study will adopt a cross-sectional design.