Effect of Social Support on the Relationship between Relational Aggression and Family-Maladjustment: Adolescents’ Perspective

The study was aimed to investigate the moderating role of social support on the relationship between relational aggression and family maladjustment among adolescents. Data was collected on Diverse Adolescents Relational Aggression Scale (Horton, 2010) to assess relational aggression, Perceived Social Support Scale (Pierce, Sarason, Sarason, 1991) to assess social support, and Index of Family Relations-IFR (Hudson, 1997) to measure degree of family maladjustment. Participants were approached at different schools and colleges of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. Sample (N = 300) comprised of equal number of girls and boys with age range 14-18 years. Psychometric properties of scales indicted moderate to good reliability for the study sample. Analysis on demographics indicated that study variables varied nonsignificantly. Results showed that family maladjustment was significantly positively related with relational aggression; whereas, significantly negatively related with social support. Regression analysis further revealed that social support and particularly family support moderates the relationship between relational aggression and family maladjustment. This significant interaction suggested that although there was positive relationship between relational aggression and family maladjustment; provision of social support, in general, and family support, in particular, may nullify the effect of relational aggression and improve adjustment in adolescents even with aggressive tendencies.