Date of Award

1999

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

First Advisor

Pamela Nickels

Second Advisor

Bob Bertolino

Third Advisor

Sharon Sevier

Abstract

This study examined adolescent attachment to parents and peers and its relation to their self-esteem. Attachment to parents and peers was operationalized with the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment (IPP A) by Greensberg and Armsden ( 1987) and self-esteem was operationalized by the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSE). A convenient, volunteer sample was used from a high school in a suburban area of St. Charles County, Missouri. The 127 adolescents ranged in age from 15 to 19 with an average age of 16 years. The sample included 120 Caucasians (94.4%), 5 African Americans (4%), 1 Hispanic (.8%), and 1 Asian (.8%). The participants were administered the IPPA and RSE in a normal classroom setting by their teacher only after their parent permission forms were returned. Parent and peer attachment were found to be significant predictors of adolescent self- esteem. Girls showed a higher level of parental attachment to their mothers compared to the boys, while boys showed a higher level of parental attachment to their fathers than the girls. Girls also reflected a higher degree of peer attachment than the boys. Implications and findings of the results will be further discussed.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

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