The role of subjective well-being and parental attachment in predicting adolescents' emotional autonomy

Adolescence is a period in which important changes occur in many areas including physiology and psychology of the individual. Emotional autonomy is one of the basic features that the individual gains in this period and shapes her/his future life. Adolescents having a positive process with their parents and the environment in this periodwill contribute positively to the their emotional autonomy acquisition. Examination of emotional autonomy with different variables can make important contributions to the related literature. The purpose of this study was to examine to what extent subjective well-being and attachment to parents predicted the emotional autonomy of adolescents. A total of 422 students from three high schools in the central district of Gaziantep participated in the study. Among participants, 138 of themwere women and 272 were men. The data were obtained through Emotional Autonomy Scale, Adolescent Subjective Well-being Scale, The Inventory of Parent and PeerAttachment and Demographic Information Form.In data analysis process, Pearson correlation analysis was used to determine the relationship between the variables, and hierarchical regression analysis was used to determine the extent to which the independent variables predicted the dependent variable, respectively. In data analysis, firstly, it was examined whether the sub-dimensions of emotional autonomy differed according to gender. The results revealed that gender made a significant difference in explaining the sub-dimension of non-idealization. According to the findings of the hierarchical regression analyses conducted for the main purpose of the study, in the first model, adolescent subjective well-beingcontributed positively and significantly in predicting the sub-dimensions of non-idealization, independence and individualization of emotional autonomy. Similarly, controlling for subjective well-being, parent attachment was added in the second model, and it was found to contribute positively and significantly in predicting the sub-dimensions of non-idealization, independence and individualization of emotional autonomy. Overall,adolescent subjective well-being and parent attachment explained 37% of non-idealization, 28% of independence and 10% of individualization of total variance. As a result, subjective well-being and parent attachment were found to be significant predictors of emotional autonomy.