Relations between perceived social support, attachment and kindness in high school students

The aim of this study is to reveal the relationships between perceived social support, secure attachment to parents and peers, and kindness character strength in high school students. The study also examined whether perceived social support, secure attachment to parents and peers, and kindness character strength differed significantly by gender. In this context, the study group of the research consists of a total of 676 high school students, 499 females (74%) and 177 males (26%) studying in Bursa in the 2020-2021 academic year. The data of the research; it was collected with the "Perceived Social Support Scale-R", "Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment -Revised Form" and "Values in Action Inventory of Strengths for Youth (VIA-Youth)". In order to determine whether the perceived social support levels of high school students, their secure attachment to parents and peers, and their kindness character strength differ significantly according to their gender, the 't-Test for Independent Samples' was conducted. "Pearson Product Moments Correlation Analysis" and Path Analysis to describe the relationships between these variables were used to determine the relationships between high school students' perceived social support levels, secure attachment to parents and friends, and kindness character strength. As a result of the analyzes, it was determined that the perceived social support from the friend, the secure attachment to the parent and the peer, and the kindness character strength differed significantly according to gender. As a result of the correlation analysis, positive and significant relationships were found between high school students' perceived social support levels from their families, friends and teachers, their secure attachment to parents and peers, and the strength of their kindness character. As a result of the path analysis, the best model; it has been observed that high school students' secure attachment to parents and peers is a model for predicting perceived social support from friends, family, and teachers, either directly or partially through kindness. It was observed that indirect prediction relations were also significant after the bootstrapping process. The findings are discussed in the context of the relevant literature.