The relationship between social support and life satisfaction in adolescents after Kahramanmaraş earthquakes: Serial mediation of resilience and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms

This study aimed to examine the relationship between perceived social support and life satisfaction among adolescents who experienced the 6 February 2023 Kahramanmaraş-centered earthquakes, in the context of the serial mediation roles of psychological resilience and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. The study included a total of 692 high school students (mean age = 15.62, SD = 1.29) enrolled in schools in Malatya, one of the provinces most affected by the earthquakes. The data were collected using the Student’s Life Satisfaction Scale, the Brief Resilience Scale, the Perceived Social Support Scale, and the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Scale. In the preliminary analyses, independent samples t-tests, one-way ANOVAs, and Pearson correlation analyses were used. The serial mediation model, in which social support was the independent variable, life satisfaction was the dependent variable, and psychological resilience and PTSD were the mediating variables, respectively, was tested using Model 6 of the PROCESS macro. The findings revealed that perceived social support in adolescents significantly predicts life satisfaction in a positive direction, and that psychological resilience and PTSD play a mediating role in the relationship between social support and life satisfaction. Our results suggest that, in the context of serial mediation, increased social support following the earthquake is associated with enhanced psychological resilience. Increased psychological resilience, in turn, predicts a decrease in PTSD levels, which is linked to higher life satisfaction. These findings suggest that post-disaster mental health interventions should prioritize strengthening adolescents’ social support networks and resilience capacities to reduce PTSD and promote long-term psychological well-being.