The relationship between psychological adjustment, best-friend acceptance– rejection, and peer attachment during late adolescence

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to realize the transliteral equivalence of the “Best- Friend Acceptance–Rejection Questionnaire” (BFARQ) for Turkish population (Study I) and to study the relationship between psychological adjustment, best-friend acceptance rejection and peer attachment of late adolescents along with gender differences (Study II). To carry out the transliteral equivalence process of BFARQ for Turkish population and to test its reliability, 60 bilingual students were given the two forms in Study I. The Turkish form was found to be transliterally equivalent to the original and the reliability was found to be strong (Cronbach’s α = .87) The sample for the second study consisted of 441 undergraduate students. The materials for data collection were: (1) a demographic questionnaire, (2) Best- Friend Acceptance–Rejection Questionnaire (BFARQ-Turkish Form), (3) child version of the Personality Assessment Questionnaire (PAQ-Turkish Form); which measures the psychological adjustment level, and (4) Peer Attachment Scale (from IPPA-T). The correlations between peer attachment and best friendship rejection (r = - .546, p < .01) peer attachment and psychological maladjustment (r = .49, p < .01), and best–friendship rejection and psychological maladjustment (r = -.438, p < .01) were significant and in the expected directions. The results showed that, poor peer attachment was the best predictor of psychological maladjustment (β =.37) followed by best-friend rejection (β = .24). The gender of the participants did not affect this relationship in any way analyzed in this study.