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<p>Social support from family, friends, and teachers is critical in preventing adolescents’ internalizing and externalizing problems. However, longitudinal research on how different combinations of social support influence these problems remains limited. To address this gap, this study employed Parallel Process Latent Class Growth Modeling (PP-LCGM) to examine the joint developmental trajectories of support from family, friends, and teachers, and their associations with the developmental trajectories of internalizing problems (i.e., depressive symptoms and non-suicidal self-injury) and externalizing problems (i.e., proactive and reactive aggression). A total of 1437 adolescents (56.9% male, <i>M</i><sub>age</sub>=13.48, <i>SD</i> = 0.70) participated in assessments conducted at three time points. The results identified one convergent trajectory of social support, represented by the high overall support class, along with four divergent trajectories, characterized as predominant family support, predominant friend support, predominant teacher support, and predominant family and friend support classes. Four trajectories of internalizing and externalizing problems were also identified: Congruent-increasing, congruent-decreasing, moderate with predominant depressive symptoms and reactive aggression, and congruent-low. Compared to those in the high overall support class, adolescents who benefited predominantly from family and/or friend support were more likely to fall into the moderate with predominant depressive symptoms and reactive aggression trajectory. Conversely, no significant differences were observed between four divergent support trajectories and the high overall support trajectory in terms of congruent-increasing or congruent-decreasing patterns of internalizing and externalizing problems. These findings suggest the key role of teacher support in protecting against depressive symptoms and reactive aggression, emphasizing the importance of equipping teachers to provide support to their students. Moreover, enhancing any single source of support, whether from family, friends, or teachers, can effectively curb the synchronous changes in internalizing and externalizing problems, offering valuable insights for resource-constrained interventions.</p>

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Social support matters: trajectories of support from family, friends, and teachers shape the course of adolescent internalizing and externalizing problems

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2025年11月22日

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  • Yiting Liang,
  • Yemiao Gao,
  • Mingyangjia Tian,
  • Chengrui Xu,
  • Xia Liu

摘要

Social support from family, friends, and teachers is critical in preventing adolescents’ internalizing and externalizing problems. However, longitudinal research on how different combinations of social support influence these problems remains limited. To address this gap, this study employed Parallel Process Latent Class Growth Modeling (PP-LCGM) to examine the joint developmental trajectories of support from family, friends, and teachers, and their associations with the developmental trajectories of internalizing problems (i.e., depressive symptoms and non-suicidal self-injury) and externalizing problems (i.e., proactive and reactive aggression). A total of 1437 adolescents (56.9% male, Mage=13.48, SD = 0.70) participated in assessments conducted at three time points. The results identified one convergent trajectory of social support, represented by the high overall support class, along with four divergent trajectories, characterized as predominant family support, predominant friend support, predominant teacher support, and predominant family and friend support classes. Four trajectories of internalizing and externalizing problems were also identified: Congruent-increasing, congruent-decreasing, moderate with predominant depressive symptoms and reactive aggression, and congruent-low. Compared to those in the high overall support class, adolescents who benefited predominantly from family and/or friend support were more likely to fall into the moderate with predominant depressive symptoms and reactive aggression trajectory. Conversely, no significant differences were observed between four divergent support trajectories and the high overall support trajectory in terms of congruent-increasing or congruent-decreasing patterns of internalizing and externalizing problems. These findings suggest the key role of teacher support in protecting against depressive symptoms and reactive aggression, emphasizing the importance of equipping teachers to provide support to their students. Moreover, enhancing any single source of support, whether from family, friends, or teachers, can effectively curb the synchronous changes in internalizing and externalizing problems, offering valuable insights for resource-constrained interventions.