Influence of attachment security on Chinese rural adolescent’s psychological well-being: Moderated mediation of self-efficacy and peer isolation

Previous research has examined the impact of family and school separately on adolescents’ psychological well-being. This study focuses on the integrated role of family and school to observe their effects on children’s psychological well-being. Using a random sample of 1180 Chinese children from Grades 4 to 9, this study explores the psychological well-being of rural Chinese children within this joint family-school framework. The PROCESS macro is used to conduct the moderation analysis. Results of this study show that attachment security is significantly and directly related and indirectly associated with adolescents’ psychological well-being through the intermediary mechanism of self-efficacy. Moreover, peer isolation moderates the relationship between psychological well-being with attachment security and its association with self-efficacy. This study contributes to confirming self-efficacy and peer isolation’s mediating and moderating role and highlights the family-school as two synergistic links that influence adolescents’ psychological well-being.