What Type of Support Do They Need? Investigating Student Adjustment as Related to Emotional, Informational, Appraisal, and Instrumental Support.

TLDR

Most research on social support uses global measures and rarely examines specific types such as emotional, informational, appraisal, or instrumental support. The study aimed to identify which types of support students perceive from parents, teachers, classmates, and close friends, and to determine whether specific support types are more strongly linked to social, behavioral, and academic outcomes. The authors surveyed 263 fifth‑to‑eighth‑grade students using the Child and Adolescent Social Support Scale, the Social Skills Rating System, and the Behavior Assessment System for Children, and conducted preliminary psychometric analyses of the CASSS. Results showed that while boys and girls reported similar support from parents and teachers, girls reported more support from classmates and friends; emotional and informational support were most common from parents, informational from teachers, and emotional and instrumental from classmates and friends; parental support predicted personal adjustment, teacher emotional support predicted social skills and academic competence, and teacher support also predicted school maladjustment.

Abstract

Despite the availability of conceptual frameworks for examining types of social support, the majority of studies in the literature measure global social support and do not examine specific types of support. Thus, the present study asked: (a) What types of support (e.g., emotional, informational, appraisal, and instrumental) do students most often perceive from each of the sources of support (e.g., parents, teachers, classmates, and close friends)? and (b) Are certain types of social support more related to students’ social, behavioral, and academic outcomes? Preliminary analyses were also conducted to investigate the psychometric properties of the Child and Adolescent Social Support Scale (CASSS; Malecki, Demaray, & Elliott, 2000) and gender differences in perceptions of types of support. Participants included 263 students in Grades 5 through 8 and data were collected using the CASSS, the Social Skills Rating System (SSRS; Gresham & Elliott, 1990), and the Behavior Assessment System for Children (BASC; Reynolds & Kamphaus, 1998). Results found that although early adolescent boys and girls perceive similar levels of all types of support from their parents and teachers, girls perceive more support of most types from classmates and friends. Furthermore, emotional and informational support were the most highly reported type of support from parents, informational support was most highly reported from teachers, and emotional and instrumental support scores were reported highest from classmates and close friends. Supportive behaviors from parents contributed to students’ personal adjustment. Emotional support perceived from teachers was a significant and sole individual predictor of students’ social skills and academic competence. Finally, supportive behaviors from teachers also predicted students’ school maladjustment.