How Social Support Relates to Purpose Commitment and Purpose Exploration Among Chinese Adolescents: The Mediating Roles of Hope and Self-efficacy

While having a purpose in life fosters optimal youth development, the attainment of this purpose would be implausible without appropriate resources. Employing structural equation modeling, this study aimed to understand the relations that purpose development (i.e., purpose commitment and exploration) had with external resources of support from significant others (i.e., family and peers) and internal resources of goal-oriented dispositions (i.e., hope and self-efficacy) among a sample of Chinese adolescents in Taiwan (N = 438). Specifically, this study investigated the double-mediation effect of hope and self-efficacy on the relationships between social support for youth's interest and purpose development. Results revealed that all variables were positively correlated. In addition, direct and indirect paths were found between social support for interest and purpose development. The associations between social support for interest were partially mediated by hope. The roles of social support as well as hope in adolescent purpose development, possible explanations for the insignificant mediating effect of self-efficacy, and practical implications were discussed.