INVESTIGATING THE MODERATING AND MEDIATING EFFECTS OF DYSFUNCTIONAL ATTITUDES AND SELF-ESTEEM IN THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SOCIAL SUPPORT AND DEPRESSION IN LATE ADOLESCENE

The present study has been conducted to investigate a moderated mediation model in which the moderating and mediating roles of dysfunctional attitudes and self-esteem have been examined in the predictive relationship between social support and depression in late adolescence. A total of 522 late adolescent subjects have been taken from two local secondary schools and a university in Klang Valley, Malaysia for this purpose. The subjects were assessed their perceived social support, dysfunctional attitudes, self-esteem and depression by using self-report Interpersonal Support Evaluation List, Dysfunctional Attitudes Scale, Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale and Beck Depression Inventory. The results of study showed that self-esteem has significantly moderated the predictive relationship between social support and depression that mediated by dysfunctional attitudes in the samples, whereas dysfunctional attitudes has merely and consistently played a role of mediating the relationship between social support and depression with its insignificant moderating role in the model of research.