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The Interplay Between Attachment to Mother and Friendship Quality in Predicting Life Satisfaction Among Turkish Children

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Friendship and Happiness

Abstract

Past research has documented that both attachment (in)security and the quality of friendship play critical roles in life satisfaction (LS). This study aims to delineate the interplay between the fundamental attachment dimensions (i.e., anxious and avoidant attachment to mothers) and friendship (i.e., friendship quality and conflict) on LS by testing three plausible expectations. First, the unique predictive power of the attachment dimensions, friendship quality, and conflict on LS was examined. Second, moderating and third mediating effects of friendship quality and conflict on the link between the two attachment dimensions and LS were investigated. Children (N = 357) attending 5th to 8th grades in Ankara, Turkey completed the measures of LS, anxious and avoidant attachment to mother, and friendship quality. Results indicated that both attachment dimensions among girls and attachment avoidance only among boys predicted LF. Friendship quality was the unique predictor of LS for both sexes above and beyond effects of attachment dimensions. Friendship quality also moderated the effect of attachment avoidance on LS among girls and mediated the effect of attachment avoidance among boys. Findings suggested that avoidant attachment to mother and low level of friendship quality are the risk factors during middle childhood for life dissatisfaction in the Turkish cultural context.

The Interplay between Attachment to Mother and Friendship Quality in Predicting Life Satisfaction among Turkish Children

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Acknowledgement

I’d like to thank Ece Akca, Fulya Krimer, Burak Doğruyol, and Ezgi Sakman for their help in collecting data, and translation, and back translation of the scales, and Melikşah Demir for his valuable comments and suggestions.

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  1. Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey

    Nebi Sümer

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  1. Nebi Sümer
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Correspondence to Nebi Sümer .

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  1. Department of Psychology, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona, USA

    Melikşah Demir

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Sümer, N. (2015). The Interplay Between Attachment to Mother and Friendship Quality in Predicting Life Satisfaction Among Turkish Children. In: Demir, M. (eds) Friendship and Happiness. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9603-3_15

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