Role of Youth's Ratings of the Importance of Socially Supportive Behaviors in the Relationship Between Social Support and Self-Concept

• NCJ Number: 225914
• Journal: Journal of Youth and Adolescence Volume: 38 Issue: 1 Dated: January 2009 Pages: 13-28
• Author(s): Michelle Kilpatrick Demaray; Christine Kerres Malecki; Sandra Yu Rueger; Sarah E. Brown; Kelly Hodgson Summers
• Date Published: January 2009
• Length: 16 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study examined the relationship between youths’ perceived frequency and importance of social support and their self-concepts.

Abstract

The findings show a significant relationship between perceived frequency of social support from parents, teachers, classmates, and friends and global self-concept. In addition, there was a significant relationship between the importance that children and adolescents placed on socially supportive behaviors from teachers and global self-concept. The perceived frequency of social support from parents was associated with all three domains of self-concept, i.e., self-image, academic, and social. Regarding teacher support, perceptions of its frequency and importance were related to higher self-concept scores in all domains of self-image, academic, and social. Youth who reported higher levels of frequency of support from peers had higher levels of academic self-concept, social self-concept, and a more positive self-image. The perceived importance of classmate support was significantly related to higher social self-concept and more positive self-image, but not academic self-concept. The findings thus suggest that self-evaluations of the importance of teacher support may be especially influential for youths’ self-concept; and the ability to discount the value of support from classmates and friends, when it is lacking, may be protective to the self-concept of children and adolescents. Study data were obtained from a representative sample of 921 children and adolescents in grades 3 through 12 that composed a subsample of the dataset used in Demaray’s and Malecki’s (2003) study. The Child and Adolescent Social Support Scale assessed perceptions of social support from parents, teachers, classmates, and close friends; and the Student Self-Concept Scale assessed self-concept in the domains of self-image, academic, and social. An analysis of variance framework was used to investigate the potential differences in self-concept in youth with varying importance ratings, in interaction with varying frequency ratings. 5 tables, 2 figures, and 55 references