The Effects of Family Support and Friend Support on Adolescent Functioning: A Taiwanese Case

A number of factors affect adolescent functioning. This study investigates the respective contributions of perceived support from family and friends to various adolescent functioning, including deviance, depression, and self-esteem. Although previous studies have examined the relationships between family support, peer support, and adolescent functioning, these studies have some limitations, such as relying on western sample (e.g., U.S.) and cross-sectional data. Using Taiwan Youth Project (TYP), we employed latent growth curve model to explore how these two supports influence adolescent functioning. We expect to see that adolescents who experience high level of family support may have better functioning (e.g., high self-esteem and low depression) than adolescents who have low level of family support. We also expect to see similar results when support from friends is in the model. In addition to the individual effect from the two sources of support, we also investigate the moderating effects of these two supports on adolescent functioning. We expect to see significant interaction between these two supports such that high level of family support may have stronger effect on adolescent outcomes when friends’ support is at high level. In contrast, low level of family support may have negative impacts on adolescent functioning even when the level of friends’ support is at high level.