The Association between Supportive Parenting and Chinese Adolescents’ Resolution in Peer Conflict: the Mediating Role of Function-Oriented Appraisal of Conflict

The present study aimed to investigate the associations among supportive parenting, function-oriented appraisal of peer conflict, and peer conflict resolution (i.e., compatibility, compromise, self-sacrifice, utility, and escape). It was hypothesized that adolescents’ function-oriented appraisal of peer conflict mediates the relationship between their perceived supportive parenting and their tendency to adopt different resolution strategies in peer conflict. Chinese adolescents aged 15 to 18 years were recruited from Taiwan as participants, and 498 valid responses were obtained. By utilizing structural equation modeling, the present study found the following results: (1) perceived supportive parenting was positively associated with adolescents’ tendency to adopt the compatibility and compromise resolution strategies but negatively associated with their tendency to adopt the escape resolution strategy; (2) perceived supportive parenting was positively associated with adolescents’ function-oriented appraisal of peer conflict, which was positively related to their tendency to adopt the compatibility, compromise, and self-sacrifice resolution strategies but negatively related to their tendency to adopt the escape resolution strategy; and (3) the mediating role of adolescents’ function-oriented appraisal of peer conflict in the relationship between their perceived supportive parenting and their tendency to adopt different peer conflict resolution strategies was significant. We discuss the implications and limitations of these findings.