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Attachment, loneliness, and well-being in emerging adulthood: primary data from a multi-method longitudinal study

Developmental Psychology

Authors(s) / Creator(s)





Abstract

The study underlying the data set aimed to capture changes in social relationships, attachment, life satisfaction, loneliness, and subjective well-being of emerging adults in the first year after high school graduation. Regarding attachment, the relationship with a parent, the relationship partner(s) (if any), and a maximum of 5 friends were considered. This is a multi-method longitudinal study in which the change of mentioned variables over time was recorded from different perspectives. In addition to the self-assessment of the different variables by the high school graduates (target person), also 1) the self-assessment of the attachment of relationship persons to the target person, as well as 2) the external assessment of different characteristics of the target person by the different relationship partners were recorded. Third-party assessments were recorded accordingly from one parent per target (measurement time points 1-4), the relationship partner(s) (if any; measurement time points 1-4), and up to 5 friends (measurement time points 2-4). Data were collected via an online survey.

Previous analyses of the data examined a) the stability or change of dyadic attachment in young adulthood, b) the variability of attachment to different attachment figures, c) attachment from the perspective of different attachment figures, d) convergence in the assessment of loneliness by different attachment figures, e) the convergent validity of self, friend, and parent ratings in measuring change in subjective well-being.

Persistent Identifier

https://doi.org/10.5160/psychdata.hnja15bi24_v100

Year of Publication

Funding

German Research Foundation (Project EI 379/6-2)

Citation

Holtmann, J., Bohn, J., Koch, T., Luhmann, M. & Eid, M. (2023). Attachment, loneliness, and well-being in emerging adulthood: primary data from a multi-method longitudinal study (Version 1.1.0) [Data and Documentation]. Trier: Research Data Center at ZPID. https://doi.org/10.5160/psychdata.hnja15bi24_v100
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Study Description

Research Questions/Hypotheses:

Research Design:

Fully standardised survey instrument (provides question formulation and answer options); repeated measurement

Measurement Instruments/Apparatus:

We used (german translations) of items from the following instruments:

 

Furthermore, we assessed: the emerging adults’ sex; their current living situation; their relationship status; communication density (frequency of contact between emerging adult and attachment figure);
subjective emotional closeness of the emerging adult to their attachment figures; commitment of the emerging adult with respect to the relationship with a respective attachment figure; motivation and
conscientiousness in answering the questionnaire; control items to assess the care with which the online questionnaire was answered.

Data Collection Method:

Survey in the absence of an investigator

Population:

Emerging adults / high school graduates in their first year after graduation in Germany as well as their parents, partners and friends.

Survey Time Period:

Longitudinal analysis with 4 measurement time points:


T1: September 2014

T2: December 2014

T3: March 2015

T4: June 2015

Sample:

Simple random sample;
Other, namely: Simple random sample of high school graduates (targets). These indicated contact with one parent each, the partner (if any), and up to five friends. The multiple friend ratings are nested within the targets.

Gender Distribution:

65,6% female participants

34,4% male participants

Age Distribution: Target persons: 17 to 22 years (mean=18.22; median=18.00; SD=0.59) at measurement time 1 (September 2014).

Spatial Coverage (Country/Region/City): Germany/Berlin (31.7%); Brandenburg (67.0%); other federal states (1.4%)/-

Subject Recruitment:

Recruitment of participating high school graduates took place primarily through presentations in schools as well as through flyers and Facebook. The survey was conducted online using Qualtrics Survey Software. For their participation, the high school graduates received 12.50 euros per measurement point. Parents, partners, and friends had the opportunity to participate in a lottery in which tablets and 10 euro vouchers were raffled. At each measurement time point, all participating individuals were reminded several times by mail to participate.

Sample Size:

603 participants

Return/Drop Out:

hnja15bi24_readme.txt
Text file
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Description: Description of the files
hnja15bi24_pd_1.txt
Text file - 3085 KB
MD5: b1009a8014ebd609b7c68d5ec851d7aa
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Description: Primary data set 1 for the study (contains all target (self-report), parent, and relationship partner data for all four measurement time points)
hnja15bi24_kb_1.txt
Text file - 1162 KB
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Description: Codebook for primary data set hnja15bi24_pd_1.txt
hnja15bi24_pd_2_v2.txt
Text file - 2916 KB
MD5: c3895371fcf990775f4777623cdebd46
Sharing Level 2 (Restricted Scientific Use)
Description: Primary data set 2 for the study (includes data from targets (self-reports) and friends)
hnja15bi24_kb_2.txt
Text file - 506 KB
Sharing Level 2 (Restricted Scientific Use)
Description: Codebook for the primary data set hnja15bi24_pd_2_v2.txt
Beschreibung_Datensatz_Holtmann_Bohn_Koch_Luhmann_Eid.pdf
PDF file - 245 KB
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Description: Detailed description about the contents of the two datasets