How Is the Loneliness Affected by Family and Friend Support in Adolescents With Depressive Disorder: The Mediating Role of Coping Strategies

Objective Perceived social support (PSS) buffers against loneliness, but family and friend support may differ in effects. This study constructed a mechanism model mediated by coping strategies to examine the pathways through which PSS, family and friend support influence loneliness.Methods Adolescents aged 12–18 with depressive disorder were recruited from 14 psychiatric hospitals across 9 Chinese provinces. They completed the Coping Strategies Scale for Middle School Students, the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, and the UCLA Loneliness Scale. Path analysis explored relationships among PSS, family and friend support, loneliness, as well as the indirect effects mediated by coping strategies.Results A total of 2,343 adolescents participated. PSS negatively predicted loneliness (β=-0.46, p<0.001). Problem-focused coping mediated the relationship between PSS and loneliness (β=0.48, p<0.001), while emotion-focused coping did not (β=-0.04, p>0.05). Both family and friend support directly predicted loneliness with coefficients of -0.13 and -0.39, respectively. Problem-focused coping mediated the associations of both family support (β=0.32, p<0.001) and friend support (β=0.28, p<0.001) with loneliness. Emotion-focused coping weakly mediated the effect of family support (β=-0.09, p<0.001), but not friend support (β=0.04, p>0.05).Conclusion Both family and friend support reduce loneliness by promoting problem-focused coping, with friend support showing a stronger effect. Family support also alleviates loneliness by reducing emotion-focused coping. Enhancing PSS and adaptive coping strategies may alleviate loneliness.