The Mediating Role of Peer Attachment in the Relationship between Parental Attachment and Social Maturity among Adolescents

Abstract
This study aimed to investigate the mediating role of peer attachment in the relationship between attachment to parents and the social maturity of student adolescents. The research was quantitative and fundamental and its method was descriptive and correlational. The statistical populace was 3553 male and woman college students aged 16-18 years in District One of Tehran. Based on a randomized technique primarily based on convenience, 334 college students had been chosen as the sample. The research data has gathered the usage of the revised inventory of attachment to parents and peers and the Social Maturity Scale. Data were analyzed using the Pearson correlation coefficient, stepwise multivariate, and hierarchical regression tests. Findings showed that the relationship between attachment to parents and social maturity was significant, and conversely, the relationship between attachment to peers and social maturity was not significant. The findings additionally demonstrated that attachment to peers does not mediate the relationship between attachment to parents and social maturity.
Introduction
Social and educational variables of attachment styles, relationships with parents, and peers are among the factors affecting the adjustments in adolescence, every of which can change the route of adolescent development positively or negatively (Jackson and Goossens, 2020). Social maturity is additionally one of the positive developments of change in adolescence, and as one of the variables affected by household life and parenting styles, performs a prominent position in altering the general health and mental health of adolescent students (Hendriks, Bartels, Stevens, et al, 2020). Considering the essential function of parental attachment in setting up adolescents ' relationships with peers in adolescents' social adjustment and maturity (Holt, Matana, and Lang, 2018) and considering the research gap on the mediating role of peer attachment among variables. Importance in the social dimension of adolescents' lives; this study was performed to investigate a new and innovative subject matter of the mediating role of peer attachment in the relationship of parental attachment and adolescent social maturity. The research of Shokralahzadeh, Seyed Mousavi, Nasiri Hanis, and Zadeh Mohammadi (2017) confirmed that attachment to parents and peers is correlated with adolescents emotional maturity and attachment to father and peers, overall, explains part of the changes in adolescents' emotional maturity and in the relationship between attachment to Parenting and emotional development, attachment to peers play a mediating role. Millings, Buck, Montgomery, Spears & Stallard (2012) additionally clarified that the degree of secure attachment of individuals in adolescence changes due to the emergence of new attachment relationships with peers and different people, and from adolescence onwards, attachment to peers and other individuals of society expands. After considering the study background, and the significant effect of attachment to parents on regulation relationships to peers during adolescents and the significant impact of peers on adolescents lifestyles (Holt, Mattanah, and Long, 2018), and considering the research gap, the motive of this test of the correlation between attachment to parents and peers and social maturity in adolescents was to test the following hypothesis.
Hypothesis: Attachment to peers has a mediating role in the relationship between attachment to parents and the social maturity of student adolescents.
Methodology
This fundamental and quantitative study was performed to reply to the query of whether peer attachment plays a mediating role in the relationship between parental attachment and social adolescence of student adolescents. To reply to this question, descriptive and correlation methods had been used. Statistical population 3553 adolescent male and girl students were in the third grade of high school and pre-university course in district one of Tehran, aged 16 to 18 years. The closing quantity of subjects was 334; First, the initial number of five hundred people was determined as a sample the usage of the Krejcie-Morgan table in 1970 and was chosen with the aid of the random sampling method based on convenience. This study had two tools for data gathering: A. the inventory of parents and peers attachment-revised (IPPA-R): Armsden and Greenberg established this 75-item inventory in 1987. The reliability of the Persian version of this tool has been reported in Afsharian and Kadivar (2016) internal consistency rates for attachment to mother, father, and peers with coefficients of 0.90, 0.92, and 0.89, respectively. The findings of these researchers also confirmed the validity of the list. In the present study, Cronbach's alpha of the subscales of attachment to mother, father, and peers was 0.73, 0.70, and 0.68, respectively. B. the Rao Social Maturity Scale (RSMS): Naliniraou established this 90-item scale in 1987 (Karami, 2003) and translated it into Persian through Karami in 2003. The personal adequacy scale (0.71), interpersonal adequacy (0.69), social adequacy (0.74), and the total score of the scale (0.86) were reported. In this study, Cronbach's alpha technique used be used to evaluate the reliability, and Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.860. Cronbach's alpha subscale of personal adequacy was 0.83, interpersonal adequacy was 0.89 and social adequacy was 0.85.
Results
Table 1 indicates the mean attachment to mother and attachment to father amongst girls (141.98) and the average attachment to mother and attachment to father amongst boys (137.85). In addition, the average attachment to peers in girls (65.92) and the mean attachment to peers amongst boys (67.50); and indicate the mean social maturity among girls (208.4), and the average social maturity amongst boys (207.1). In addition, in table 1, mean, standard deviation, minimum and maximum scores, and skewness and elongation of each of the aspects of personal, interpersonal, and social adequacy in the genders are shown separately.
According to the outcomes of Table 2, it viewed that the prediction of social maturity is based on attachment to mother and attachment to father with the mediating role of attachment to peers variable. In addition, the attachment to the father is significant at the level of 95% confidence, which indicates the impact of the attachment to the father on social maturity. By entering the mediating attachment to peers to the regression equation, the role of the attachment to mother decreases (0.002) and has a significant role in predicting social maturity, and the attachment to father (0.006) decreases and has a significant role in predicting social maturity. In addition, the mediating variable of attachment to peers at the level of 95% confidence is not significant, which indicates that the mediating attachment to peers on social maturity.
Discussion and conclusion
This study aimed to investigate the mediating role of peer attachment in the relationship between parental attachment and adolescent social maturity.  A phase of the findings confirmed that attachment to parents has a significant relationship with adolescent social maturity and attachment to parents predicts the variance of adolescents' social maturity. This finding was consistent with the outcomes of Hejazi, EJei, and Ranjbar (2013) and Taheri, Tajrishi, Movallali, Rahgozar, and Arshi (2010). Another part of the study findings confirmed that attachment to peers has no significant correlation with social maturity and attachment to peers does not mediate the relationship between attachment to parents and social maturity. This finding however the difference between emotional maturity and social maturity was consistent with the outcomes of the study by Shakralehzadeh, et al (2017). One of the limitations of this study was the generalizability of the results and the restrained sample, which has particularly limited the external validity of this study. Researchers advocate properly doing this study in other educational levels and sub-periods of adolescence, considering the possibility of different relationships in different age groups. What has been added to the current theoretical and practical expertise of this study is that if adolescents can develop interpersonal relationships and positive emotional bonds with peers as a developmental task, secure attachment styles can manifest. Therefore, counselors ought to pay interest to the signs of social maturity and design programs to enhance the biological, mental, social, and spiritual health of adolescents.