Mediation Model of Self-Control in Predicting Adolescent Psychological Well-Being Based on Attachment Style and Religious Orientation

Adolescence is one of the most substantial and yet shortest stages of every person's life, which is accompanied by many changes. This period covers 14-19 years and has 3 important parts: physical, mental and social maturity. Psychological well-being has a significant impact on improving the mental health of adolescents. Psychological well-being is the effort to realize one's talents, improve them and reveal one's abilities. It consists of six parts: self-acceptance, purposeful life, mastery of the environment, positive relationships with others, autonomy, and personal growth. The emotional connection between the child and their caregiver has a major impact on the process of psychological well-being. This factor, called attachment, causes the child to seek comfort from the mother, especially in situations where they feel fear and danger. Another factor influencing the psychological well-being and mental health of adolescents is their psychological-spiritual changes. Religion is the deepest source in which human existence is nurtured and all its dimensions – including the unity of man with God – depend on it. Another dominant factor is self-control or self-discipline which is very effective in mental health and well-being. Self-control means the ability to control emotions, behavior, and desires to achieve rewards or avoid some consequences. People who have higher self-control have better achievements in a variety of fields. Self-control is related to a set of positive and desirable achievements, including proper adjustment, better school grades, fewer eating problems, better interpersonal communication, and the emergence of optimal emotional responses.

In terms of the practical purpose and also based on the data collection method, the present study is a descriptive research of the correlation type (using structural equations). The population under study included all the students in the second year of secondary school in Kashan (8,100 people) who were studying in the academic year of 2021-2022 in the age group of 15 to 18 years. According to the number of variables observed in the current research, a sample size of 550 people was considered. After data collection, 500 questionnaires were analyzed. To sample students, the random cluster method was used. Questionnaires used in the research included the psychological well-being questionnaire (RSPWB), religious orientation questionnaire, attachment style questionnaire, and self-control questionnaire.

The indices reported in structural equation analysis (Table 2) show a good fit between the data and the model. As a result, the experimental data collected by the researcher confirmed the theoretical model developed in the literature and shows that the causal model developed to explain the well-being of Kashan students based on attachment styles, and religious orientation with the mediation of self-control is a desirable model. The explained variance of psychological well-being by the linear combination of exogenous and mediating variables is 0.60. In other words, which shows that the linear combination of attachment styles, religious orientation, and self-control explains 60% of changes in psychological well-being. The linear combination of attachment styles and religious orientation explained 25% of the changes in self-control. Based on the results of Table 3, safe style with (p < 0.05, β = 0.10), ambivalent style (p < 0.01, β = -0.19), external religious orientation (p < 0.01, β = -0.15), and self-control (p < 0.01, β = 0.41) had a significant role in predicting students' psychological well-being. All 5 predictor variables had a significant relationship with the mediation of self-control and psychological well-being. All predictor variables had a significant relationship with the self-control variable.

The purpose of this research was to investigate the role of attachment style and religious orientation in the psychological well-being of adolescents through self-control. The findings showed that safe style and ambivalent style have a significant relationship with psychological well-being. To interpret the findings, when children receive and perceive appropriate support from their parents, they can deal with problems more optimistically and purposefully can enjoy good personal development, be flexible, optimistic, progressive, and self-regulating, and have more vitality and vitality. Children who have insecure attachments are related to the feeling of fear, and inability to coordinate with situations. The unfavorable result of insecure attachment is significantly far from psychological well-being. People with secure attachment in adulthood can effectively create favorable interpersonal relationships. A person should accept their strengths and weaknesses. As for internal orientation and psychological well-being, researchers show a significant and positive relationship between internal orientation and psychological well-being. In the present study, however, this relationship was not significant, which is contrary to the literature. It can be explained by the fact that adolescence is associated with huge changes in physical, cognitive, moral, and social fields. The person has not yet reached the stage of internal understanding and their religious identity has not yet been completed to be able to reach the internalized degrees of religion. Various factors are involved in the formation of religious orientation during adolescence, among them, one can mention the family, the educational system, and the media. If any of them does not perform their function well, the formation of the religious orientation of adolescents will face a serious problem.Various studies have shown that there is a relationship between self-control and psychological well-being which is in line with the findings of the present study. It can be explained that self-control is the capacity of a person to adjust their behavior according to the conditions and changes of the internal and external environment. In other words, a person can organize their behavior according to their goals, so that people with higher self-control gain better achievements in various fields. Self-control is correlated with a set of positive and desirable achievements, including appropriate adjustment (less psychological damage and higher self-esteem), better educational grades, better interpersonal communication, and the occurrence of optimal emotional responses. Another finding of the present study showed that all 5 predictor variables had a significant relationship with the mediation of self-control and psychological well-being. Some studies have investigated the effect of attachment style and religious orientation on self-control. The findings of the present research show the significant relationship between variables with self-control and ultimately the mediating role of self-control in promoting psychological well-being. It can be explained that self-control is an internal force available to inhibit, reject or change responses that are influenced by moral beliefs, social characteristics, parents' level of religiosity, and an individual's participation in religious activities and traditions. The more parents are careful in choosing to create an attachment between themselves and their children, and the more students have an internal religious orientation, the more self-controlled they will be, and finally, we conclude that they will make fewer mistakes in youth and adulthood.