The purpose of this study was to examine if college students’ attachment insecurity, as evaluated by the Adult Attachment Interview, moderates the effect of affective security in mentoring on subsequent perceptions of the mentoring program and relationship quality with other teachers. Academically at-risk students were involved in a 10-hour mentoring program and completed measures at three points in time. Security in mentoring was associated with a subsequent positive perception of mentoring and with low conflict with teachers, although not with supportive relationships with teachers. As expected, these associations were moderated by attachment insecurity. Security in mentoring was positively related to subsequent perceptions of mentoring only for students showing low preoccupation with attachment, and inversely related to conflict with teachers only for students showing high dismissing attachment tendencies.
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