A Longitudinal Study of Adolescents' Perceptions of Support and Stress

Abstract

Social support has been found to reduce adolescents' perceptions of stress and to contribute to greater well-being; however, lacking in much of the research has been the examination of changes in social support in the lives of'adolescents. Examined in this study were changes in adolescent support and stress over a 7-month period. Three-hundred fifty-two students completed a questionnaire at three points in time over 7 months. Results indicated that mothers were selected most often as the primary support person at each time. However, 42% of the adolescents changed their nomination of support provider at all three times. Perceptions of parental and fitmily support were key in discriminating adolescents who did or did not change their primary support person. Parental and family support also were instrumental in predicting adolescents'perceptions of stress. The results of this study show that parents and,faimily continue to play an important role in the lives of adolescentv.