An investigation of friendship quality, attachment to friends and perceived social support from friends as predictors of loneliness in adolescents

The purpose of the present study was to explore to what degree perceived social support from friends, friendship quality and attachment to friends predicted adolescents' loneliness level. The study was designed as a descriptive study, and the sample of the study consisted of a total of 430 students, of whom 239 were female and 191 male students studying at Anatolian high schools located in İskenderun district of Hatay province in the academic year of 2016-2017. The data were collected using Personal Information Form, UCLA Loneliness Scale, Perceived Social Support Scale, Friendship Quality Scale and Attachment to Friends Scale. The research variables were investigated in terms of gender, mother's education level, father's education level, the number of siblings, income level of the family and grade level by utilizing independent samples T-test, one-way analysis of variance (One Way ANOVA), and Kruskal Wallis H test in the SPSS program. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was used to find out to what degree loneliness was predicted by perceived social support, friendship quality and attachment to friends. As a result of the study, perceived social support from friends, friendship quality, and attachment to friends were found to predict loneliness significantly. Furthermore, gender, grade level, mother's education level, father's education level, the number of siblings, and the monthly income level of the family variables did not significantly differ in terms of UCLA loneliness scale. Friendship quality and perceived social support differed significantly in terms of gender, and female students were found to perceive more social support from their friends than male students. However, they did not differ significantly in terms of grade level, mother's education level, father's education level, the number of siblings, and the monthly income level of the family variables.It was detected that the secure attachment to friends subdimension differed significantly in favor of female students in terms of gender. Results were discussed within in the context of adolescence, loneliness, social support, attachment,and friendship quality variables in the light of previous research.