We examined the social networks of urban, at-risk African American adolescents to determine who provided different types of support. We also tested two theoretical models of support, the main-effects model and the stress-buffering model to examine support from different sources in the context of chronic neighborhood stressors in relation to global self-worth.
Social Support Networks
We found African American youth identified many different people as providing support. Youth consistently listed the female members of their families—mothers, grandmothers, sisters, and aunts—as support providers. For each of the three types of support (emotional, tangible, and informational), they most often named their mothers as providing the support followed by their friends for emotional and instrumental support. Teachers were most likely listed as sources of informational support, versus emotional or instrumental support. Participants frequently named other female supports, mostly great grandmothers and godmothers, as providing all three types of support. Male family members that were listed included fathers, brothers, grandfathers, and mother’s boyfriend/stepfathers, with fathers being listed most often. These findings are significant, given the dearth of research that has explored the social networks of African American at-risk youth, as more published work has focused on adults.
The tremendous support provided by women in this study underscores the pivotal role of women in African American families (Boyd-Franklin and García-Preto
1994). Women have traditionally played the role of caretaker in this community, not only for their own children, but for others’ children as well (Greene
1994). Kinship networks include both extended biological and non-biological family members, and these family members share in family responsibility, thereby providing alternative role models, sources of support, and respite for mothers (Greene
1994). Common listings of extended family members is consistent with research demonstrating that even at young ages, African American children were likely to include extended family as central support figures and rely heavily on them (Bost et al.
2004).
The lower levels of support by men should not underestimate the importance of fathers and male relatives in the African American community, as paternal support has been associated with less depression (Bean et al.
2006). However, some children may be without this support. This may be caused by the oppression that men face in this community, leading to difficulties in obtaining gainful employment and overrepresentation in jails. Some have theorized that when men are not able to provide monetarily for their children, they are more likely to withdraw from family life (e.g., Gavin et al.
2002). In this way, economic oppression of men may increase the role of women in these families.
In many cases, students named the same people at similar frequencies for emotional, tangible, and informational support, and these similarities across support function are consistent with research indicating stability in support network structures among African American preschool students (Bost et al.
2004). There were also some interesting patterns of differences in functional support that emerged. Mothers were named most frequently as providers of emotional support, then informational support, and tangible support least frequently, while brothers, aunts, and uncles were noted as providing more tangible support compared to other types of support they provided. Although mothers were still the primary providers of tangible support, given the economic challenges represented within this sample, it makes sense that youth may need to look to others to ask for additional things they need or want.
Regarding informational support, teachers were listed as informational support providers (26%) much more frequently than providing other types of support (6–8%). Of course, this may in many cases apply to coursework, but it is also likely that teachers serve as role models (Bru et al.
2001) and help students with other types of problems and decisions. Teacher support and acceptance have been associated with better academic (e.g., Elias and Haynes
2008) and behavioral outcomes (e.g., Benhorin and McMahon
2008). Students reported receiving less informational support from friends, grandmothers, and uncles compared to other types of support they received from these individuals.
Main Effect vs. Stress-Buffering Models of Social Support
We examined the main-effects versus stress-buffering models of social support in relation to global self worth in the context of neighborhood disadvantage. Our results support the main effect model of social support. Cross-sectionally, support from close friends was related to global self-worth. Parent support was the only source of social support found to have a significant longitudinal effect on self-worth. Students did perceive the highest levels of support as coming from their parents, and this is consistent with the network findings described above, in which mothers were listed most frequently as giving emotional, tangible, and instrumental support. Increased parental support has been associated with increased self-esteem (Greene and Way
2005) and adolescent global self-worth (Laursen et al.
2006).
Whereas parental support is often associated with positive outcomes in youth, findings on peer support have been less consistent, with some showing positive effects and others reporting negative effects (Zimmerman et al.
2000). This mixture in findings may be due in part to the fact that the effects of peer support depend on the values of the peer group (Cauce et al.
1996). In our study, friends were identified as providing all three forms of social support; however, there was not a longitudinal relationship between friend support and self-worth. These findings suggest that at any moment in time, support from friends is associated with a child’s current sense of self-worth, but over time, parental support is more influential in shaping and maintaining an adolescent’s sense of self-worth and mental health (e.g., Dubow et al.
1997; Zimmerman et al.
2000). This may be due to the relatively transitory nature of some friendships (Chan and Poulin
2007) compared to family relationships. It is also possible that close friends provide youth with certain types of competence over time, but not global self-worth. Indeed, Laursen and colleagues (2006) found that social support from a close friend is longitudinally related to certain types of interpersonal competence, such as social acceptance, friendship competence, and romantic competence.
Although previous research has shown that a close relationship with a teacher is positively correlated with the social, emotional, and academic adjustment of the child (Murray and Greenberg
2000), we did not find a relation between teacher support and global self-worth in the current study. Perhaps this is due in part to the fact that in this study, although teachers provided informational support to students, they did not provide very much emotional or tangible support. Further, children who attend inner-city public schools may not receive sufficient individual time and attention from their teachers unless their behavior is disruptive (Vondra
1999).
The results of this study do not support the stress-buffering hypothesis of social support, as it did not buffer the effects of neighborhood disadvantage on a youth’s sense of self-worth. Our findings are consistent with some recent studies of African American youth (e.g., Paxton et al.
2004; Salazar et al.
2004), but the extant research is equivocal in its support of the stress-buffering hypothesis for social support. One reason may be specificity in terms of the relations among particular types of stressors, moderating factors, and youth outcomes (McMahon et al.
2003). Indeed, stress-buffering has been found to depend on the outcome of interest (Rosenfeld et al.
2006), and there are not enough theory-driven studies that test full models of specificity to make adequate comparisons across studies. Further, environment-based moderators, such as social support, have been characterized by variability in conceptualization and measurement, limiting conclusions that can be drawn (Grant et al.
2006). Thus, there is a need for further research in conceptualization and measurement of these constructs, as well as theory-driven, longitudinal studies with at-risk populations to better understand the roles of various types and sources of support in promoting positive outcomes and reducing risk.
There are several strengths and limitations represented in this study. In terms of strengths, our study was theory-driven, and we assessed positive influences and outcomes among an often pathologized, at-risk, understudied population. We also used multiple measures of support, assessing both structural and functional support, in terms of who provides support and how it influences youth. In terms of limitations, this study relied on self-report measures, was relatively short in duration, and included only one measure of stressors and one outcome. Further, the measures did not tap into support that was specifically provided to cope with the stressor of neighborhood disadvantage. Obtaining multiple perspectives and comparing models that assess several stressors and several outcomes could improve the specificity of our findings. Our measure of functional support was also limited in that it did not measure the adequacy of the support received from each person.
There is a need to further examine the complicated relations among different types and sources of social support, stressors, and psychosocial outcomes with diverse samples. It appears that parent support plays an especially important role in promoting global self-worth, so providing services to parents, as well as children may be beneficial. Finally, studying potential protective factors for youth who experience chronic stressors should not diminish our efforts to reduce these larger systemic issues related to poverty, racism, violence, gangs and drugs that must be addressed.