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

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:

• Attachment scales according to Asendorpf: Asendorpf, J.B., Banse, R., Wilpers, S. & Neyer, F.J. (2002). BBE. Beziehungsspezifische Bindungsskalen für Erwachsene [Verfahrensdokumentation aus PSYNDEX Tests-Nr. 9003681, Autorenbeschreibung und Fragebogen]. In Leibniz-Zentrum für Psychologische Information und Dokumentation (ZPID) (Hrsg.), Elektronisches Testarchiv. Trier: ZPID. https://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.323
• 3 items (translated to German) of the dimensions trust and communication taken from: Armsden, G. C. & Greenberg, M. T. (1987). The Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment: Individual differences and their relationship to psychological well-being in adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 16(5), 427-454. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02202939
• 3 newly formulated items to measure relatedness (as opposed to alienation), see: Bohn, J., Holtmann, J., Luhmann, M., Koch, T., and Eid, M. (2020). Attachment to parents and well-being after high-school graduation: a study using self- and parents ratings. Journal of Happiness Studies, 21, 2493–2525. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-019-00190-y
• Big Five Inventory by Rammstedt, B., Kemper, C. J., Klein, M. C., Beierlein, C., & Kovaleva, A. (2013). Eine kurze Skala zur Messung der fünf Dimensionen der Persönlichkeit. Methoden, daten, analysen, 7(2), 233-249. https://doi.org/10.12758/mda.2013.013
• 9-item short form of the UCLA, translated to German, in the original version by: Russell, D., Peplau, L. A., & Ferguson, M. L. (1978). Developing a measure of loneliness. Journal of Personality Assessment, 42, 290 – 294. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa4203_11
• German translation of the Subjective Happiness Scale by: Lyubomirsky, S., & Lepper, H. (1999). A measure of subjective happiness: Preliminary reliability and construct validation. Social
  Indicators Research, 46, 137-155. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006824100041

• Satisfaction with Life Scale in the german translation by: Glaesmer, H., Grande, G., Braehler, E., Roth, M. (2011). The German Satisfaction with Life Scale – Psychometric Properties and Populaion based norms. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 27(2), 127-132. https://doi.org/10.1027/1015-5759/a000058

  Original version: Diener, E., Emmons, R. A., Larsen, R. J. & Griffin, S. (1985). The Satisfaction with Life Scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 49, 71-75. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa4901_13

• German translation of the Flourishing Scale by: Diener, E., Wirtz, D., Tov, W., Kim-Pietro, C., Choi, D., Oishi, S. & Biswas-Diener, R. (2009). New measures of well-being: Flourishing and positive and
  negative feelings. Social Indicators Research, 39, 247-266. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-009-9493-y

  Item formulations are provided as „German 2“ at https://eddiener.com/scales/9

• Version A of the short form of the Multidimensional Mood State Questionnaire by: Steyer, R., Schwenkmezger, P., Notz, P. & Eid, M. (1997). Der Mehrdimensionale Befindlichkeitsfragebogen (MDBF). Handanweisung. Göttingen: Hogrefe.
• Short form of SozU-K14 for measuring social support by: Fydrich, T., Sommer, G., Tydecks, S. & Brähler, E. (2009) Fragebogen zur sozialen Unterstützung (F-SozU): Normierung der Kurzform (K-14). Zeitschrift für medizinische Psychologie, 18(1), 43-48.
• Subscale “contact” (3 items) taken from: Jerusalem, M., Drössler,
  S., Kleine, D., Klein-Heißling, J., Mittag, W., Röder, B. (2009).
  Förderung von Selbstwirksamkeit und Selbstbestimmung im Unterricht:
  Skalen zur Erfassung von Lehrer- und Schülermerkmalen. Skalenbuch.
  Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.
  https://www.erziehungswissenschaften.hu-berlin.de/de/paedpsych/forschung/Skalenbuch_FoSS.pdf
• German translation of the Relationship Questionnaire by:
  Bartholomew, K., & Horowitz, L. M. (1991). Attachment styles among
  young adults: a test of a four category model. Journal of Personality
  and Social Psychology, 61(2), 226.
  https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.61.2.226

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

• Online survey

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: