Modeling the mediating role of loneliness in the relationship between attachment styles with dependency on virtual social networks

The purpose of this study was modeling the mediating role of loneliness in the relationship between attachment styles with dependency on virtual social networks. In this descriptive-correlational study, the research population consisted of all the 2nd cycle high school female students in Tehran city at the academic year of 2018-2019. From this population, 425 students were selected as the research sample through cluster sampling method. In this study, addiction to social networks questionnaire (ASNQ) of mobile scale of Khāje Ahmadi, Poulādi and Bahrini (2016), adult attachment scale (AAS) of Collins & Read (1990) and loneliness scale (ULS-8) of Wu & Yao (2008) were used as the research instruments. Evaluation of the proposed model with path analysis was done using SPSS and AMOS-24 softwares. Findings showed that there was a negative and significant correlation between secure attachment style with dependency on the virtual social networks(p < 0/01). There was a positive and significant correlation between the ambivalent attachment styles, avoidance and loneliness with dependency on the virtual social networks(p < 0/01). The proposed model had an acceptable fitness to the data (RMSEA=0/059, GFI=0/920, IFI=0/940, χ2= 6/632, P-value<0/05). Overall, the results showed that all the direct paths were significant (p < 0/05). Also, the indirect path of attachment styles to dependency on virtual social networks were significant through the moderating role of loneliness. The evaluated model had a good fit and it was an important step in identifying the factors that are influential on the students' dependency on virtual social networks. Also, it could be an appropriate model which can be useful for designing and developing the dependency on virtual social networks prevention programs.