The Relationship Of Peer Attachment、Self-differentiation And Anxiety In High School Students:A Cross-lag Analysis

Anxiety is a common emotional problem in adolescents.Long time anxiety will widely and negatively affect adolescents development.Many factors affecting anxiety has been study in this area,but less attention has been paid to peer attachment and self-differentiation.Our research included a cross sectional(Study 1)and longitudinal study(Study 2).The Experiences in Close Relationships-Relationship Structures,Differentiation of Self Inventory-Revised and Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 scale were used to test the high school students Sichuan Province.1115 affective data was obtained in Study 1 and 540 in Study 2(three waves data with an interval of six months).Study 1 confirmed the mediating role of self-differentiation between peer attachment and anxiety with a cross sectional data.Study 2 further explored the interact relationship of the three variables over the three times,and used cross-lag models to analyze the causal relationship among them.The main results of this study showed that:(1)Peer attachment was negatively correlated with self-differentiation,and positively correlated with anxiety;self-differentiation was significantly negatively correlated with anxiety.(2)Self-differentiation played partial mediating effect between peer attachment and anxiety.(3)In the longitudinal study,the scores of peer attachment,selfdifferentiation and anxiety have changed in the three surveys,but the trends were different.(4)In the longitudinal study,T1 anxiety can significantly negatively predict T2 self-differentiation,and T2 self-differentiation can significantly negatively predict T3 attachment avoidance and T3 attachment anxiety;Attachment anxiety of T1 can significantly negatively predict selfdifferentiation of T2,and self-differentiation of T2 can significantly negatively predict anxiety of T3.In conclusion,there is an interaction among peer attachment,selfdifferentiation and anxiety.In the mental health education of high school students,we should not only realize the importance of peer attachment,but also pay attention to self-differentiation.