The Effect Of Peer Attachment On The Development Of Adolescent Security

Security is an individual's presentiment of potential physiological or psychological dangers,along with the sense of strength or powerlessness in coping with them.It mainly manifested as a sense of certainty and controllability.In theory,it is generally believed that security originates from parent-child attachment.With the shift of attachment focus from parents to peers,peer attachment has become an important component of adolescent attachment system,but there is still no consensus on its role in security.Considering that previous studies might have been limited by research methods,this study used two different research methods to explore the effect of peer attachment on the development of adolescent security.In Study 1,a structural equation model of parent-child attachment,peer attachment and security was established based on 523 questionnaires in order to clarify their relationship preliminarily.The result showed that both parent-child attachment and peer attachment can positively predict security,while peer attachment can moderate the relationship between parentchild attachment and security,that is,compared with lower peer attachment,parent-child attachment has a greater role in predicting security under a higher peer attachment level.In Study 2,causality between peer attachment and adolescent security was further verified through a subliminal priming experiment involving 40 participants.It was a 2×2 completely within-subject design.The independent variables were prime words(attachment peer vs.nonattachment peer)and target words(security vs.insecurity).The dependent variable was participants' reaction times to target words.In the experiment,peer attachment showed a priming effect on security.To be exact,nonattachment peer priming did not cause significant difference in participants' reaction times to the two target words,while attachment peer priming made participants react more quickly to security words than insecurity ones.The conclusions of this study are as follows:(a)both parent-child attachment and peer attachment can positively predict security;(b)peer attachment can moderate the relationship between parent-child attachment and security;and(c)peer attachment can inspire security.