The Mediating Role of Family and Friend Support in the Relationshipbetween Adolescents’ Social Appearance Anxiety and Satisfactionwith Life

Abstract

This study explored the mediating role of perceived social support from family andfriend in the relationship between social appearance anxiety and satisfaction with lifein adolescents. Determined by simple random sampling method, population consistedof 753 high school students, 443 females (58.8%) and 310 males (41.2%), who wereattending high schools affiliated with Amasya Directorate of National Educationduring the spring semester of the 2018-2019 academic year. Participants' ages rangedfrom 14 to 19 (mean=15.95, SD=1.01). In the study, the Social Appearance AnxietyScale, the Satisfaction with Life Scale, and the Family Support and Friend Supportsubscales of the Perceived Social Support Scale-R were used as data collection tools.According to the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient analysis, socialappearance anxiety had statistically significant negatively correlation with satisfactionwith life, family support, and friend support. Perceived support from family andfriends had statistically significant positively correlation with satisfaction with life. Theregression analysis showed that social appearance anxiety significantly predicted lifesatisfaction and family and friend support, while family and friend supportsignificantly predicted life satisfaction. Furthermore, the analyses performed withProcess Macro Model 4 determined that family support and friend support weremediating variables in the correlation between social appearance anxiety andsatisfaction with life.