| dc.description.abstract | Adolescence is a critical period for psychological well-being in today’s era of rapid technological advancement. The high use of social media among adolescents is a cause for concern, and the rise of dual-earner families has the potential to affect the quality of attachment and family relationships. This study aims to analyze the influence of parent-adolescent attachment, loneliness, and social media engagement on adolescents’ psychological well-being in single-earner and dual-earner families. The study employs a quantitative approach. The research location is Bekasi City.
Schools were selected using cluster random sampling, resulting in the inclusion of
four public and private junior high schools in Bekasi City. Data collection took
place from February to March 2026. The study population consisted of adolescents
in Bekasi City, with a total of 259 respondents selected using purposive sampling
based on specific criteria. Data analysis was conducted using descriptive methods,
correlation analysis, t-tests, and analyses of direct and indirect effects.
Data collection was carried out by distributing questionnaires in person, with researchers present to assist. The measurement tools used included the following: Adolescent-parent attachment was measured using the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment (IPPA)—the mother and father versions—by Armsden and Greenberg (1987), with Cronbach’s alpha coefficients of 0.941 for adolescent-father attachment and 0.936 for adolescent-mother attachment. Loneliness was measured using the UCLA Loneliness Scale Version 3 questionnaire by Russel (1996), with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.876. Social media engagement was measured using the Social Media Engagement Scale-Adolescents (SMES-A), developed by Ni et al. (2020) and adapted into Indonesian by Rahimmatussalisa et al. (2024), with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.800. Psychological well-being was measured using Ryff’s Scales of Psychological Well-Being (short scale), developed by Ryff (1995) and adapted into Indonesian by Humaidah and Mulyono (2025), with a Cronbach’s alpha value of 0.789.
The number of respondents from single-earner and dual-earner families was nearly equal, although the group was still dominated by respondents from singleearner families. Most adolescents exhibited secure attachment to their parents, low levels of loneliness, high levels of social media engagement, and high levels of psychological well-being. The results of the t-test showed no significant differences between the single-earner and dual-earner groups across all variables. The results of the correlation test showed that adolescent and family characteristics have different relationships in single-earner and dual-earner families. In single-earner families, increasing adolescent age, higher maternal income, and a larger number of family members are associated with a decrease in adolescents’ attachment to both their father and mother, while the duration of social media use is associated with increased loneliness. Conversely, in dual-earner families, the adolescent’s increasing age is associated with increased loneliness and decreased psychological well-being, while the duration of social media use is associated with increased social media engagement. Additionally, parental education and the father’s income
are positively associated with the adolescent’s attachment to the mother.
The results of the influence analysis show that in both single and dua learner families, adolescents’ attachment to their fathers has a significant negative effect on loneliness, while their attachment to their mothers has a significant positive effect on psychological well-being. In dual-earner families, loneliness had a positive effect on social media engagement, while social media engagement had a positive effect on psychological well-being. Additionally, in dual-earner families, it was found that loneliness mediated the relationship between adolescents’ attachment to their fathers and social media engagement. Overall, this study shows that the quality of adolescents’ relationships with their parents, particularly their mothers, remains a crucial factor in supporting adolescents’ psychological wellbeing despite differences in family status based on the primary breadwinner.
Based on these findings, it can be concluded that adolescents’ psychological well-being is more strongly influenced by the quality of the parent–adolescent attachment, particularly with the mother, than by whether the family is a singleearner or dual-earner household. Therefore, strengthening communication, trust, warmth, and parental involvement, especially on the part of the mother, should be a priority in fostering adolescents’ attachment to their parents. In dual-earner families, the balance between work and parenting needs to be optimized so that quality interactions with adolescents are maintained even when both parents work. Additionally, guidance on positive social media use is needed, as well as collaboration between families, schools, and the government to support adolescents’ mental health and psychological well-being. Adolescents are expected to exercise self-control in their use of social media.
This study has several limitations: the scope of the study is limited to adolescents from middle- to upper-income families, so the results cannot yet be widely generalized; and the categorization of single-earner and dual-earner families does not take into account the parents’ occupational characteristics. Future research is recommended to expand the geographic scope or include families with different socioeconomic characteristics, as well as to incorporate additional variables that may influence adolescents’ psychological well-being—such as emotional regulation, self-esteem, resilience, peer support, the quality of time spent with family, parental work flexibility, and family religiosity—to develop a more comprehensive model. | |
