Social support and achievement in childhood and early adolescene: A multicultural study

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Abstract

Supportive relationships are known to contribute to personal functioning in adult life, but much less is known about the effects of social support in childhood and adolescence. In research with adults, support has been found to affect personal outcomes both directly and indirectly, either by interacting with stress or by enhancing self-appraisal. The relation between support and school achievement was explored in this study of students at three grade levels (1–2, 4–5, 8–9) from a multiethnic public school population. Personal interviews were conducted with 333 African-American, Anglo/European-American, and Hispanic-American students. Measures of social support, life stress, loneliness, and academic self-concept were included. Achievement indices were grades, Stanford Achievement Test scores, and teacher ratings. Support was related to achievement both directly and indirectly through self-appraisal, but specific effects varied by grade level. Support effects strengthened and stress effects declined in significance at adolescence, suggesting increased ability to utilize support resources in coping with stress.

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    Portions of this article were presented at the meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, April 1992.

    We thank the staff and students at Oak Grove and North Miami Elementary Schools, North Miami Middle School, Sinai Academy, and the FIU Child Development Center for their participation in this study. We also acknowledge the assistance of Sonya Ballard, Dalia Biller, Stacey Blaze, Sherry Feiner, Ruth Gammon, Claudia Lang, Joan Lake, Michelle McCauley, and Shelley Rosenberger. We especially thank Marcia Silver and Susan Williams for their contributions to the project.

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