The relation between adolescent’s parent and peer relationships. : A study of howadolescents' perceived parental support affects their levels of support and conflict in their closest friendship.

This study examines the relation between adolescents' perception of their relationship with their closest friend regarding the level of support and conflict and their perceived parental support. Further it explores whether the relation is moderated by the adolescents’ gender or the parents’ gender. The study also examines if the relations are moderated whether the adolescents have externalising or internalising behavioural patterns. The data consisted of 1408 adolescents in various municipalities in Sweden and is part of the research programme Longitudinal Research on Development in Adolescence (LoRDIA). The adolescents have completed questionnaires in a classroom setting and the data was analysed with univariate and bivariate analyses. This study's main conclusion is that there is a significant relation between the adolescents’ perception of their relationship with their closest friend and their perceived parental support. The results also showed significant gender differences, girls had a stronger relation between perceived parental support and support and conflict level in their friendship. Adolescents experienced a stronger perceived parental support from their mothers and that relation was also stronger for girls than for boys. Lastly the adolescent’s own behaviour also showed a significant difference for those with a risky externalising or internalising behaviour pattern as they had a weaker relation between their perceived parental support and support and conflict in their friendships. The results are then discussed in relation to Banduras social cognitive theory and previous research