Merrill-Palmer Quarterly

Multiple features of social support provided by mothers, fathers, siblings, and friends to Indonesian (N = 240) and U.S. (N = 203) elementary and junior high school students were assessed using the Networks of Relationships Inventory. Cultural differences in the relative salience of friends and family members as providers of social support emerged. Indonesian youth ranked family members higher and friends lower on companionship and satisfaction than did U.S. youth. Friends were seen as the primary sources of intimacy in both countries. These results are consistent with suggestions that patterns of social support vary as a function of cultural differences in familism, individualism, and collectivism.