The Role of Peer Relationships in Adolescent Mental Health: An Examination of Social and Emotional Pathways
Keywords:
Peer relationships, mental health, adolescents, social support, emotion regulation, social rejection, qualitative researchAbstract
This study aimed to explain adolescents’ lived experiences of the role of peer relationships in mental health and to identify the social and emotional pathways through which these relationships may operate. This qualitative study employed a descriptive-exploratory design. The participants were 20 adolescents aged 14–18 years residing in Tehran, Iran. They were recruited through purposive maximum-variation sampling to achieve diversity in age, gender, school type, and residential area. Data were collected exclusively through individual semi-structured interviews. Interviews continued until theoretical and meaning saturation was achieved; preliminary saturation occurred after the eighteenth interview, and two additional interviews were conducted to confirm data adequacy. All interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed through inductive thematic analysis. NVivo 14 software was used to organize, code, retrieve, and compare the qualitative data. Credibility and trustworthiness were enhanced through participant checking, peer review of the coding process, reflexive memo writing, maximum-variation sampling, and maintenance of an analytical audit trail. The analysis generated 412 initial codes, 57 focused codes, 14 subcategories, and five main categories: “belonging, acceptance, and social safety,” “emotional support, empathy, and co-regulation,” “identity formation, self-worth, and social comparison,” “conflict, rejection, bullying, and psychological insecurity,” and “normative influence and the duality of online and face-to-face relationships.” Participants described supportive peer relationships as sources of belonging, emotional validation, stress relief, self-disclosure, and enhanced self-confidence. Conversely, rejection, humiliation, betrayal of confidence, bullying, pressure to conform, and recurrent social comparison were associated with loneliness, anxiety, depressed mood, school avoidance, emotional dysregulation, and diminished self-esteem. Digital peer interactions facilitated connection and continuous access to support but simultaneously increased exposure to misunderstandings, exclusion cues, public evaluation, and comparison. The findings suggest that the implications of peer relationships for adolescent mental health depend more strongly on relational quality, stability, safety, trust, and emotional processes than on the mere number of friends. Peer relationships may function both as protective resources and as contexts of psychological vulnerability. Adolescent mental health interventions should therefore extend beyond individual coping skills and address friendship quality, school connectedness, bullying prevention, emotional literacy, conflict resolution, and the management of online peer interactions.
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