Examining the Correlation of the Peer-Attachment Styles with Hopelessness Levels in Adolescents

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the correlation between the peer attachment styles and hopelessness levels in adolescents. The research was a descriptive study based on correlational survey model. The population of the study consisted of a total of 213 students studying in the 6th, 7th, and 8th grades of Erzincan Otlukbeli Fatih Secondary School, and the 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th grades of Otlukbeli Multi-program Anatolian High School. The data were collected by using the "Beck Hopelessness Scale" (BHS) developed by Beck, Lester and Trexler (1974) to determine the hopelessness levels of the students, and the "Adolescent Friendship Scale" (AFS) developed by Wilkinson (2008) and adapted into Turkish by Ercan (2015) in order to determine the peer attachment styles of adolescents. As a result of the analyses carried out in order to determine the hopelessness levels of the participants based on gender and level of teaching, it was observed that there was no significant difference on hopelessness levels in terms of gender (p>.05); on the other hand, the hopelessness scores of high school students were higher compared to secondary school students in terms of level of teaching (p<.05). The peer attachment styles of the participants in terms of gender and level of teaching were determined by using t test. As a result of these analyses, it was observed that there was no significant difference in the subscales of attachment styles in terms of gender (secure, avoidant, anxious/ambivalent) (p>.05), there was a significant difference between the mean scores obtained by the secondary school students from Secure Attachment and Avoidant Attachment subscales of the Adolescent Friendship Scale in terms of level of teaching (p<.05); and there was no significant difference between their mean scores of Anxious/ambivalent Attachment subscale (p>.05). Pearson Product-Moment Correlation test was used for examining the correlation between peer attachment styles and hopelessness levels of the participants. As a result of the analysis, it was observed that while there was a negative significant correlation between total score of hopelessness level and the secure attachment subscale (p<05), there was no significant correlation between total score of hopelessness level and avoidant and anxious/ambivalent attachment subscales of the participants (p>05). As a result of the study, recommendations were offered to the researchers and the staff members working in the field in accordance with the results obtained.