Friendship Quality and Psychological Well-Being: The Mediating Role of Perceived Social Support

The current study was designed to examine the mediating role of perceived social support between
friendship quality and psychological well-being. There were 529 participants in the study (309 girls
and 220 boys), adolescents who are in the 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th grades of six state high schools
from the city of Uşak, Turkey. Their ages were between 14 and 19. These participants were assessed
using the Friendship Qualities Scale and Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support.
Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) techniques were used for assessing the mediation model. The
results showed that a social support-family fully mediated the relationship between the quality of
companionship-friendship, the quality of conflict-friendship, and psychological well-being; a social
support-special person fully mediated the relationship between companionship and psychological
well-being; and social support-friends fully mediated the relationship between security (friendship
quality subscale) and psychological well-being.