The Effects of Self-esteem and Life Satisfaction on Problem Behaviors among Adolescents in Grandparent-Grandchild Families: The Mediating Effect of Social Support

Objectives: The present study aimed to examine the structural relationships among the self-esteem, life satisfaction, social support, and problematic behaviors of adolescents who grow up in grandparent-grandchild families. To achieve the objective, a survey was conducted among 381 adolescents in these families, and the results were as follows. Findings: First, analysis showed positive correlations among subgroups of internalized problematic behaviors. In addition, these behaviors had positive correlations with teachers’ support and friends’ support but negative correlations with life satisfaction. Additionally, externalized problematic behaviors were negatively correlated with parents’ support, teachers’ support, self-esteem, and life satisfaction. Second, structural equation modeling analysis revealed that self-esteem had a significant impact on social support and externalized problematic behaviors; life satisfaction on social support; and social support on problematic behaviors. Third, it was also found that social support mediates the relationships between self-esteem and problematic behaviors and between life satisfaction and problematic behaviours. Improvements: With these findings, this study proposes a plan to reduce the problematic behaviors of adolescents who live in grandparent-grandchild families.