The effects of social support on youth hopefulness during early adolescence

The present study examined the association between social support and youth hopefulness from the beginning of middle school (6th grade) through the end of middle school (8th grade). The study focuses on the unique effects of sources of social support for youth (i.e., parent, peer, teacher) and the accumulation of support across sources of support. This study is based on Call and Mortimer’s (2001) Arenas of Comfort Theory, Lerner et al.’s, (2009) Positive Youth Development Perspective, and Snyder’s (2000) Hope Theory. Participants included 416 youth in 6th grade at the beginning of the study (mean age = 11.86, SD = .69; 91% European American). Controlling for household income, gender, and race, the present study examined four hypotheses. The first hypothesis states that parental support during 6th grade is associated with increases in youth hopefulness from 6th through 8th grades. The second hypothesis states that peer support during 7th grade is associated with increases in youth hopefulness from 7th through 8th grades. The third hypothesis states that teacher support during 6th grade is associated with increases in youth hopefulness from 6th through 8th grades. The fourth hypothesis states that cumulative support is associated with increases in youth hopefulness from 6th through 8th grades. With the exception of teacher support in one of the analytic models, this study found evidence that each source of support uniquely and positively was associated with youth hopefulness over time. As such, the results from this study highlight the importance of social support from parents, peers, and teachers in fostering youths’ hopefulness as they transition through the developmental period of early adolescence