A Longitudinal Study on the Mediating Role of Self-Esteem and Life Satisfaction on the Effect of Family Support on Loneliness in Adolescents.

Abstract

Although some studies investigated the relation between family support, self-esteem, life satisfaction and loneliness, little is known about the causal relation between family support and loneliness, mediated by self-esteem and life satisfaction. The present longitudinal study used data from Wave 2 and Wave 3 from the Youth Got Talent (YGT) study collected in the Netherlands. The sample included 939 adolescents aged between 16 and 24 years old (M = 17.7, SD = 1.57) who filled out a questionnaire in spring 2020 and fall 2020. Linear regressions showed, contrary to our hypothesis, that family support did not predict less loneliness. Additionally, we found that family support did not predict higher levels of selfesteem and life satisfaction. However, we still found that self-esteem and life satisfaction predicted lower levels of loneliness. For implications, this means that both life satisfaction and self-esteem could pay a bigger role in interventions for preventing loneliness.