Transcript Relations between Social Support, Life Satisfaction and

3rd International Conference of the
International Society For Child Indicators
Relations between Social Support
and Well-being in Adolescents
Jorge Castellá Sarriera, Lívia Maria Bedin, Eveline Favero,
Daniel Abs, Mariana C. Benchaya & Tiago Z.Calza
[email protected]
Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS, Brazil)
Research Group in Community Psychology (GPPC)
University of York, UK • 27–29 July 2011
Introduction

Social support:

Is based on the social support concept proposed by Cobb
(1976), and after used by Vaux (1988), who defines it as the
information that makes someone believe that is cared and
loved, esteemed and valued.
Information of support can be transmitted through intimate
situations involving mutual trust and it’s often referred to as
emotional support.
Positive relationship with support persons, such as parents,
contribute to the improvement of the adolescents’ well-being
(Ben-Zur, 2003).
In the presence of social support there is a better well-being
perception (Petito & Cummins, 2000).



Introduction
Personal Well-Being
◦ It is conceptualized as feeling good or not, along the
life cycle overall, not in occasional moments of life.
◦ It can be understood as a reciprocal relationship
between internal aspects (psychological) and its
external interactions with other people and the
context (psychosocial).
Casas (2010); Cummins, Eckersley, Pallant, Van Vugt & Misajon (2003)
Objective

This paper aimed to verify possible differences
between personal well-being and social support
in adolescents considering age and gender and
to explore relations between this variables in
the sample.
Method

Sample:
 1,589 students (548 boys and 1,081 girls)
from five cities in the state of Rio Grande do
Sul (the capital state city and four other
smaller cities of countryside).
 Ages ranged between 12 and 16 years old,
with a mean of 14.13 (SD = 1.26).
Instruments:
 Social Support Appraisals Scale (SSA, Vaux et al.,
1986)
SSA measures the adolescents’ perception of the social
support provided by their family, friends and others in
general. In this study, only items related to the family
and friends subscales were used.
It consists of 12 agree-disagree items ranging from 0 to
10
In this study, the SSA’s Cronbach’s Alpha was 0.86.
Instruments
 Personal Well-being Index (PWI)
Assessment of people’s satisfaction with general
aspects of life (Cummins, Eckersley, Pallant, Van Vugt,
& Misajon, 2003).
The PWI-7 consists of the following seven items:
 Satisfaction with health, living standards, what one
has achieved in life, security, the groups of people
one is part of, security about the future and the
relationships one has with others.
In this study, the PWI-7’s Cronbach’s Alpha was 0.78.

Procedure
◦ The participants were contacted through public and
private schools belonging to the cities in the sample.
◦ The selected schools were randomized from a list
provided by the Department of Education of the State of
Rio Grande do Sul.
◦ The final survey participants were volunteer students who
returned a term of free and clear consent signed by them
and by their parents or guardians.
◦ The questionnaires were applied collectively in a room
provided by each school.
◦ All ethical requirements for research with human beings
were followed.
Results
Average and standard deviation for the Personal Well-being
Index by age and gender groups.
Well Being Index
Age
Male
Female
Total
12
80.48 (14.09)
85.43 (10.70)
83.69 (12.19)
13
84.51 (09.59)
81.99 (12.27)
82.98 (11.34)
14
83.21 (11.19)
81.36 (12.25)
81.95 (11.94)
15
80.90 (10.62)
79.59 (12.36)
80.04 (11.79)
16
82.70 (10.18)
79.41 (12.09)
80.51 (11.56)
Total
82.56 (10.96)
81.17 (12.20)
81.65 (11.80)
Results

Interactions between age and gender and PWI.
Results
Average and standard deviation for the SSA by age and
gender groups.
SSA Average
Age
Male
Female
Total
12
7.79 (2.06)
8.52 (1.33)
8.25 (1.67)
13
8.32 (1.28)
8.42 (1.34)
8.38 (1.31)
14
8.07 (1.36)
8.27 (1.47)
8.21 (1.44)
15
8.07 (1.25)
8.18 (1.56)
8.14 (1.46)
16
8.26 (1.39)
8.23 (1.39)
8.24 (1.39)
Total
8.13 (1.43)
8.30 (1.44)
8.24 (1.44)
Results

Interactions between age and gender for:

Family Social Support
Friends
Social Support
Results
Analysis of variance of PWI and Friends and Family Social Support
Source
Age
Gender
Age * Gender
Dependent
Variables
Sum of
Squares
df
Mean
Square
F
Sig.
PWI
1850.547
4
462.637
3.387
.009
Friends SS
19.843
4
4.961
1.609
.169
Family SS
15.692
4
3.923
1.449
.215
PWI
197.550
1
197.550
1.446
.229
Friends SS
80.579
1
80.579
26.141
.000
Family SS
1.194
1
1.194
.441
.507
PWI
1845.755
4
461.439
3.378
.009
Friends SS
36.436
4
9.109
2.955
.019
Family SS
14.841
4
3.710
1.371
.242
Results



Pearson correlations were performed and Significant
correlations were found between the Personal Well-Being
Index with all items of perceived friends’ and family’s social
support (p < 0.001),
It was performed a Confirmatory Factorial Analysis of the
scales SSA and PWI with the entire sample. Adjusts
presented satisfactory results according to the literature
(Batista-Foguet & Coenders, 2000; Byrne, 2001),
A final model was built using the Personal Well-Being Index
as a factor related to social support.
Results
Final model of relation between
Social Support and PWI
Results
Fit statistics for the factor structure a model
QuiSquare
DF
Sig.
RMSEA (CI)
CFI
Factor Model for PWI
28.1
11
P < 0.001
0.031 (0.017 – 0.046)
0.993
Factor Model for SSA
274.21
46
P < 0.001
0.056 (0.050 – 0.062)
0.978
3559.31
1505
P < 0.001
0.021 (0.020 – 0.022)
0.927
3674.91
1541
P < 0.001
0.021 (0.020 – 0.022)
0.924
MultiGroup SEM Final
Model: Unconstrained
factor loadings
MultiGroup SEM Final
Model: Constrained factor
loadings
Discussion



The perception of social support in adolescence can
vary with time, since changes in relationship groups,
such as parents and friends, often take place.
Family and Friend’s influence has fundamental
importance in this stage of life due to the processes of
independence and autonomy, especially in regards to
emotional support, loyalty, understanding and intimacy
(Antunes & Fontaine, 2005).
Also, trust of family and friends, both included in this
research, are important to aid the development of the
adolescent’s independence and autonomy.
Discussion


Family and friends still have a central role in the
adolescent’s development (Pratta & Santos, 2007) and
interventions that promote and strengthen the social
support from these groups are important.
The support system may also be develop beyond family
and friends, and may constitute an important source of
esteem, care, respect and affiliation to a group (LópezCabanas & Chacón, 1997; Gracia, 1998).
Contributions



To verify the relationship between perceived support in
adolescents’ close relationships and their well-being in a
theoretical model that can be applied to different age
groups of teenagers, regardless of gender.
This proper fit of the model is important for future
research on the relationships and contexts of adolescents
and their direct or indirect impact on their quality of life.
Despite the good model fitting, it is considered that
cultural differences can have an effect on the results and
that more research can be undertaken in this respect, since
these relations tend to be established differently in other
cultures.
References

Antunes, C., & Fountaine, A. M. (2005). Percepção de Apoio Social na Adolescência: Análise
Fatorial Confirmatória da Escala Social Support Appraisals. Paidéia, 15(32), 355-366.
Retrieved from http://www.scielo.br/pdf/paideia/v15n32/05.pdf.

Batista-Foguet, J. M. & Coenders, G. (2000). Modelos de Ecuaciones Estructurales. Madrid: La
Muralla.

Ben-Zur, H. (2003). Happy adolescents: The link between subjective well-being, internal
resources, and parental factors. Journal of Youth & Adolescence, 32(2), 67-79. doi: 00472891/03/0400-0067/0.

Byrne, B.M. (2001). Structural Equation Modeling With AMOS: Basic Concepts, Applications, and
Programming. New Jersey: LEA.

Casas, F. (2010). El bienestar personal: Su investigación en la infancia y la adolescencia.
Encuentros en Psicología Social, 5(1), 85-101.

Campbell, A., Converse, P. E., & Rogers, W. L. (1976). The quality of American life: Perceptions,
evaluations, and satisfactions. Nueva York. Russell Sage.

Cobb, S. (1976). Social support as a moderator of life stress. Psychosomatic Medicine, 38(5),
300-314. Retrieved from http://www.psychosomaticmedicine.org/ cgi/reprint/38/5/300.

Cummins, R.A., Eckersley, R. Pallant, J. Van Vugt, J, & Misajon, R. (2003). Developing a
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References

Diener, E., & Diener, M. (1995). Cross-cultural correlates of life satisfaction and self-esteem,
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
Gracia, E. (1998). El apoyo social en la intervención comunitaria. Barcelona: Paidós.

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
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
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
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
Pratta; & Santos. (2007). Família e Adolescência: A Influência do Contexto Familiar no
Desenvolvimento Psicológico de seus Membros. Psicologia em Estudo, 12(2), 247-256.

Vaux,A. (1988). Social Support:Theory, research, and intervention. NY: Praeger.

Vaux, A., & Wood, J. (1987). Social support resources, behavior, and appraisals: A path
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
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http://www.ufrgs.br/gppc
Email: [email protected]
3rd International Conference of the
International Society For Child Indicators
Relations between Social Support
and Well-being in Adolescents
Jorge Castellá Sarriera, Lívia Maria Bedin, Eveline Favero,
Daniel Abs, Mariana C. Benchaya & Tiago Z.Calza
[email protected]
Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS, Brazil)
Grupo de Pesquisa em Psicologia Comunitária (GPPC)
University of York, UK • 27–29 July 2011