Heterogeneity in within-person relationships between parental support and adolescent meaning in life: a daily-diary study

Finding meaning in life is a developmental task for adolescents, which is essential for their mental health. Therefore, it is necessary to explore what promotes adolescents’ meaning in life. Because supportive relationships play critical roles in the formation of meaning in life, and parental support is a fundamental source of support, this study investigated whether parental support fostered adolescents’ meaning in life by using a daily diary design to obtain ecological valid data in natural contexts. To further understand the moderating mechanisms, we tested whether personal (i.e., adolescent gender) and contextual (i.e., family subjective socioeconomic status, FSSS) factors moderated this link. The sample were 278 adolescents (50.4% female; M_age = 13.88 years), who filled in daily assessments during one week. Results showed that adolescents reported higher level of presence of meaning and search for meaning than usual on days when they perceived more support from their parents. Moreover, the lagged association between parental support and search for meaning was moderated by FSSS. Specifically, parental support was positively associated with next-day search for meaning for adolescents with higher FSSS, but a reverse trend was observed for those with lower FSSS. These findings suggest that parental support is the key factor in the development of meaning in life and family context is a moderating mechanism. Overall, our findings provide theoretical guidance for developing meaning in life, maintaining mental health, and developing interventions in psychological disorders characterized by meaninglessness among adolescents.