Parental Attachment,school Connectedness And Meaning In Life Among High School Students

Positive psychologists point out that meaning in life(MIL)refers to the meaning of the individual’s existence and the perception of self-worth.High school students are about to enter adulthood and face college entrance examinations,which has choices of life direction.During this time,they may think more deeply and frequently about the meaning of life,which also more likely lead to their sense of meaninglessness.Researchers have shown that attachment security can promote individual’s positive feelings and beliefs of life(Mikulincer& Shaver,2013).Relatively few studies,however,has addressed the mediating mechanism(i.e.,how attachment relates to MIL)and moderating mechanism(i.e.,when the protection is most potent)underlying this relation.The present research aims to examine the direct effect of attachment in family(parental attachment)and attachment in school(school connectedness)on MIL and the underling mechanisms(i.e.the mediating role of basic psychological needs satisfaction and the moderating role of proactive personality)in this relation.By convenient sampling,a total of 1488 senior high school students including 676 boys and 812 girls were recruited to participate in this study.The mean age of the participants was16.21(SD = 0.60;Range = 14.25-18.33 years).They completed Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment scale,School Connectedness scale,the 21-item General Need Satisfaction scale,the Meaning in Life questionnaire and the Chinese version of Proactive Personality Scale.The results indicate that:(1)Parental attachment,school connectedness,basic psychological needs satisfaction and proactive personality were significantly positively correlated with their MIL;(2)After controlling for gender,age,academic performance and parent socioeconomic status,both parental attachment and school connectedness had a positive effect on MIL of high school students.Further,these two types of attachment exert interactive influence on MIL.For individuals with stronger school connectedness,parental attachment can positively predict MIL significantly;for individuals with weaker school connectedness,parental attachment has the trend to positively predict MIL,but not significantly.(3)The positive association between parental attachment and students’ MIL and the positive association between school connectedness and MIL was both partially mediatedbybasic psychological needs satisfaction.Parental attachment and school connectedness respectively predict basic psychological needs satisfaction significantly,and basic psychological needs satisfaction predicts MIL significantly.(4)The mediating effect of basic psychological needs satisfaction in the association between parental attachment and MIL is moderated by proactive personality.To be more specific,basic psychological needs satisfaction predicts higher MIL in those who reported strong proactive personality.(5)Proactive personality is also moderated the indirect link between school connectedness and MIL through basic psychological needs satisfaction.Specifically,this indirect link is stronger for senior high school students with strong proactive personality than for those with weak proactive personality.Fortunately,for students who reported weak proactive personality,enhancing their school connectedness can significantly increase their basic psychological needs satisfaction.