Measuring Specific Attachment Relationships of Mother, Father and Peer in Malaysian Adolescents

Abstract

The Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment (IPPA) is the most widely used self-report measure of individual differences in adolescent attachment. However, the factor structure of this measure has not been replicated outside of the Western adolescent population. Using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), the aim of this study is to explore the factor structure of the IPPA in Malaysian adolescents. A total of 2,040 school-going adolescents across urban and rural areas of Malaysia completed the 75 items of the IPPA Mother, Father and Peer forms. Contrary to Western findings, results revealed that the three factor structure of the original IPPA sets were not replicated in the Malaysian data. A different three-factor structure for the Parental scales and a two-factor structure for the Peer scale were found to best fit the data. Multigroup CFA (MGCFA) of the IPPA-Malay scales supported invariance of the structural model across age, gender and locality of adolescents. The results indicate that assumptions underlying the cross-cultural assessment of attachment relationships need to be examined. Future research is suggested to look into culturally valid instruments to investigate the adolescent attachment relationship beyond the Western context.

Attachment as a Predictor of University Adjustment Among Freshmen: Evidence From a Malaysian Public University

“…By adopting the framework of peer attachment and university adjustment, this study has shown that the hypothesized relationships were partially supported. In addition, following the suggestion made by Ishak, Yunus, and Iskandar (2010) and Zulkefly and Wilkinson (2014) regarding the limited literature exploring the attachment relationship among emerging adults in a non-western samples, this study has made an important empirical contribution to the literature on attachment, particularly in the context of freshmen in Malaysia.…”

“…There were no past literature to support this notion as this study is the first to examine the effect of peer alienation towards institutional attachment. Nevertheless, Zulkefly & Wilkinson (2014) examined the psychometrics characteristics of IPPA among Malaysian adolescents and found that the original factors of IPPA did not show a replication towards Malaysian culture. They stated that "the understanding towards the attachment concept among young people in Malaysia is different.…”

“…Past literature reported a mix finding of the psychometric properties of IPPA in different cultures and countries. Furthermore, studies done in Asia using the IPPA in examining attachment are usually unidimensional, without having the three subscales examined separately (Zulkefly, & Wilkinson, 2014).…”

“…Even though studies on adolescents have received increasing attention in Malaysia, studies in identifying attachment relationships between adolescents are still lacking (Ishak, Yunus, & Iskandar, 2010). In addition, the majority of researches related to adolescent attachment that has been documented thus far is based on population samples from western countries, and there are only a few published research studies which are related to non-western samples, such as those from Malaysia (Zulkefly & Wilkinson, 2014). The present study is important as it has provided empirical evidence of the relationship between peer attachment and adjustment to life in the university from an Asian perspective.…”

Measurement invariance of the Inventory of Peer and Parent Attachment among Latinx and non-Latinx college students.

“…For instance, using a sample of 197 college undergraduates from the United States (ages 17–21), researchers replicated the three-factor structure of the mother version of the IPPA, but they were unable to replicate the three-factor structure for peer support (Li et al, 2014). In addition, the original three-factor structure of the IPPA was not replicated in a sample of 2,040 adolescents between the ages of 13 and 17 from Malaysia (Zulkefly & Wilkinson, 2015). Rather, a different three-factor structure for the parental scales was found (Zulkefly & Wilkinson, 2015).…”