Parental and peer attachment among adolescents of jammu

Human beings tend to form attachment with their primary caregivers since the very beginning of life. Attachment theory has particularly interesting applications for understanding adolescent’s development, because it is during this time that children explore intimate, supportive relationship outside the family. The present study analyses and compares the attachment adolescents of Jammu city share with their mothers, fathers, and peers. Attachment was evaluated in three dimensions namely, degree of mutual trust, quality of communication and level of anger and alienation. The sample for the study comprised of 160 school and college going adolescents in the age group of 12-19 years. The sample was selected through random sampling technique. The tool for data collection was the IPPA scale (Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment) designed by Arms den and Greenberg. The results reveal that most adolescents shared high degree of mutual trust with their mothers, fathers and peers. Comparatively more adolescents were highly attached with their respective father and mother than their peers. Similarly, most adolescents shared higher levels of communication with their mothers, fathers and peers. There was no significant difference in the sample adolescents’ communication pattern. On the dimension namely anger and alienation most adolescents scored moderately with parents as well as peers. The adolescents weren’t overly detached or angry with neither their parents nor the peers. The findings indicate that most adolescents shared healthy attachment with not only their mothers and fathers but also with their peers.