Abstract

This study attempted to determine the mediating effect that empathy had on the relationship between high school students’ insecure attachment type and anger expression. A survey was conducted on 177 students in their second year of high school from three high schools located in Seoul. The collected data was analyzed using SPSS 25.0 and mediation analysis was conducted using SPSS PROCESS macro 4.0. The results of this study are as follows. First, of the insecure attachment types, anxious attachment was statistically significantly positively correlated with both types of anger expression, anger-out and anger-in, and both types of empathy, cognition and emotion, while avoidant attachment was statistically significantly positively correlated with anger-in. Only cognitive ability was statistically significantly positively correlated with anger control. Avoidant attachment was statistically significantly negatively correlated with both cognition and emotion and cognition was statistically significantly negatively correlated with anger expression. Second, cognition statistically significantly mediated the relationship between anxious attachment, anger-out, and anger control, respectively. Cognition only had a statistically significant mediating effect on the relationship between avoidant attachment and anger control. Thus, cognition predicted anger-out and anger control in high school students. This study’s results can be used to develop intervention and counseling programs for high school students who have difficulty expressing anger appropriately. This paper discusses this study’s limitations and suggestions for follow-up research.