Relationship between parental attachment and adolescent bullying in school: An analysis of the mediating role of psychological well-being and attachment to peers

Abstract

Bullying is one of the most important health problems for teenagers. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between parental attachment and adolescent bullying in school by analyzing the mediating role of psychological well-being and peer attachment. The statistical population of the study consists of all first-grade high school students in Kowsar city in 2020-2021. Participants included 329 female students who were selected by cluster random sampling method and responded to the Illinois Bullying Scale 2001, Reef Psychological Well-Being Scale, 1980, and Parent-Peer Attachment Scale, 1987 in Adolescents. Research hypotheses were tested by path analysis. Findings showed that there is a negative and significant relationship between parental attachment and bullying. In addition, in the relationship between parental attachment and bullying, two variables of peer attachment and psychological well-being play a mediating role. Also, the fit indices of the final research model had a good fit, which all confirmed the significance of the research

Keywords

• bullying
• attachment to parents and peers
• psychological well-being