The relationship between attachment style, personality traits, parental attitudes and identity development of adolescents'

The aim of this research is examining the relations between attachment style, personality traits, parental attitudes and identity development of adolescents'. The working group of the research consists of a total of 267 high school students (119 girls and 148 boys) in the age group of 14-17. Personal Information Form, Relationships Scale Questionnare, Five Factor Personality Inventory, Parental Attitude Scale and Extended Objective Measure of Ego Identity Scale were applied to the participants, respectively. Independent Sample t test, One way ANOVA, Correlation Analysis and multiple linear regression analysis were used to analyze the data obtained in research. According to findings of the research, meaningful relations were found between identity status and attachment style, personality traits and parental attitude. When the relationships between attachment style and identity status are compared with correlational analysis, a positive relationships were found between achieved identity status and secure attachment style, between moratorium identity status and insecure attachment style (fearful, preoccupied and dismissing) and between diffused identity status and fearful attachment style. When the relationships between personal traits and identity status are compared with correlational analysis, positive relationships were found between achieved identity status and extraversion, openness and agreeableness, between moratorium and neuroticism. Negative relationships were found between foreclosed identity status and agreeableness and openness, and also between diffused identity status and extraversion, conscientiousness and openness. When the relationships between parental attitude and identity status are compared with correlational analysis, positive relationship was found between aciheved identity status and democratic parental attitude; negative relation was found between diffused identity status. Lastly, positive relationship was found between foreclosed identity status and protective- demanding parental attitude. According to gender and age, meaningful diferences were found. In terms of age, the difference was found only betweeen forclosed identity. Form the point of the view of age, moratorium identity status points are differentiated and it is seen that the girls got higher mark. According to findings of the research, there was meaningful relations in the context of regression analysis. It is seen that independent variables predicts apporximately %23 of acieved status, %26 of foreclosed identity status, %25 of moratoryum identity status and %23 of diffused identity status. The findings of this research are discussed in comparison with the findings of the research in literature. Key Words: Identity Status, Adolescence, Parental Attitudes, Personality Traits, Attachment Style.