Co-authored by Sheri McVay and Jonathan Santo<\/p>\n
Who matters more to teenagers, their friends or their parents? When it comes to adolescents, most of us assume friends matter more than parents, and that answer seems obvious. Adolescence<\/a> is often described as the period when peers take center stage<\/a> and parents gradually fade into the background. Friends become the primary source of validation and emotional support, and although parents remain involved, they may seem less influential.<\/p>\n This narrative isn\u2019t wrong. But it\u2019s incomplete and in some cultural contexts, it may be even misleading. For this reason, our research team wanted to examine<\/a> whether peer support or parental support matters more when African adolescents experience stressors like bullying<\/a>.<\/p>\n We analyzed data from more than 2,500 adolescents between the ages of 11 and 17 from Benin in West Africa. The data came from the World Health Organization\u2019s Global School-Based Health Survey, and aimed to assess adolescents\u2019 health risk behaviors and protective factors in low- and middle-income countries using self-reported questionnaires.<\/p>\n As expected, adolescents who were bullied were more vulnerable to mental health issues, such as feeling lonely<\/a> and even considering suicide<\/a>. What surprised us, however, was where support mattered most. We expected that support from friends would explain the link between being bullied and vulnerability to mental health issues, but it did not. Instead, parental support emerged as an important protective factor. Adolescents who felt more supported by their parents reported fewer mental health problems, even when they had experienced bullying.<\/p>\n The Western View of Adolescence<\/p>\n Most of what we know about adolescent development comes from research conducted in Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) societies. In these contexts, autonomy and independence are highly valued, and adolescence is framed as a time of emotional separation from parents and increased reliance on peers.<\/p>\n