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 Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS, Brazil) Research Group in Community Psychology (GPPC) University of York, UK 27–29 July rd International Conference of the International Society For Child Indicators

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 (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 Well Being Index AgeMaleFemaleTotal (14.09)85.43 (10.70)83.69 (12.19) (09.59)81.99 (12.27)82.98 (11.34) (11.19)81.36 (12.25)81.95 (11.94) (10.62)79.59 (12.36)80.04 (11.79) (10.18)79.41 (12.09)80.51 (11.56) Total82.56 (10.96)81.17 (12.20)81.65 (11.80) Average and standard deviation for the Personal Well-being Index by age and gender groups.

Results Interactions between age and gender and PWI.

Results SSA Average AgeMaleFemaleTotal (2.06)8.52 (1.33)8.25 (1.67) (1.28)8.42 (1.34)8.38 (1.31) (1.36)8.27 (1.47)8.21 (1.44) (1.25)8.18 (1.56)8.14 (1.46) (1.39)8.23 (1.39)8.24 (1.39) Total8.13 (1.43)8.30 (1.44)8.24 (1.44) Average and standard deviation for the SSA by age and gender groups.

Results Interactions between age and gender for: Family Social Support Friends Social Support

Results Source Dependent Variables Sum of Squares df Mean Square FSig. Age PWI Friends SS Family SS Gender PWI Friends SS Family SS Age * Gender PWI Friends SS Family SS Analysis of variance of PWI and Friends and Family Social Support

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 Qui- Square DFSig.RMSEA (CI)CFI Factor Model for PWI P < (0.017 – 0.046)0.993 Factor Model for SSA P < (0.050 – 0.062)0.978 MultiGroup SEM Final Model: Unconstrained factor loadings P < (0.020 – 0.022)0.927 MultiGroup SEM Final Model: Constrained factor loadings P < (0.020 – 0.022)0.924 Fit statistics for the factor structure a model

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 (López- Cabanas & 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.

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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 Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS, Brazil) Grupo de Pesquisa em Psicologia Comunitária (GPPC) University of York, UK 27–29 July rd International Conference of the International Society For Child Indicators