A Comparison Of Attachment In Adolescents Of Chinese Mainland, Malaysian Chinese And Malay

The purposes of the present study include: (a) to explore whether attachment with parent, peer and teacher are different among three ethnic groups of adolescents of Chinese Mainland, Malaysian Chinese and Malay; (b) to examine the relationships of parental attachment, peer attachment, and teacher attachment to perceived school belonging of adolescents; (c) to investigate the psychometric qualities of instruments.Questionnaires were administered to samples of Chinese Mainland and Malaysian adolescents. The sample was composed of 713 adolescents in China Mainland, 666 Malaysian Chinese and 315 Malay adolescents, age ranged between 13 and 18 years. They completed the instruments designed to assess their attachment quality with parent, peer and teacher, and perceived school belonging. For each questionnaire, exploratory factor analysis was conducted. Factor analyses revealed that: (a) the IPPA Questionnaire included three factors of communication, trust, and avoid; (b) the Teacher Attachment Questionnaire included two factors of availability and acceptance, and rejection; (c) the School Belonging Questionnaire included one factor. Validity and reliability analyses showed that the psychometric qualities of above instruments were acceptable.The relationship between parental attachment, peer attachment, teacher attachment and school belonging of adolescents were examined. Analyses using structural equation modeling showed that parental attachment influenced school belonging by the mediating of teacher attachment. Teacher attachment influenced school belonging directly and was the mediator of parental attachment influencing school belonging. Results of this study underscore that teacher attachment is the most important variable of school belonging compare with parental attachment and peer attachment.Results indicated that there was the generalizability of the "internal working model" across different cultures, that peer attachment and teacher attachment were significantly related with parental attachment. Age differences were found in three groups. Attachment in Malaysian adolescents aged 15 is the lowest. Chinese Mainland adolescents aged both of 14 and 17 are the lowest. Regardless of gender, adolescents are more intimate and closer with peers than their parents and teachers. It was also found that there were gender differences of peer attachment. Peer attachment in female is higher than male. There were significant differences in 4 kinds of attachment among adolescents of Chinese Mainland, Malaysian Chinese and Malay. Malaysian Chinese adolescents reported lowest levels of attachment with parent, peer and teacher compared with Chinese Mainland and Malay adolescents. Chinese Mainland adolescents showed a lower level of mother attachment than Malay adolescents. Further exploratory with interview showed that the frequency of parent-child and teacher-student communication of Malaysian Chinese seemed less than Malay adolescents.