“I Don’t Really Have Many”: Student Parents Navigating Social Supports

Abstract

Drawing on the social support hypothesis, this paper examines social supports available to a sample of student parents in a small city in Southern Ontario and how they experienced and valued those supports. Our wider research project investigated the experiences of young student parents enrolled in an alternative high school, particularly looking at the effectiveness of a newly introduced mentorship program. Following protocols approved by our university’s Research Ethics Board, we conducted up to three qualitative, semi-structured, one-on-one interviews with 11 female student parents before, during, and after the summer closure of their high school program (29 interviews in total), most of whom were working-class, white, and heterosexual. In this study, we explore three questions: (1) what challenges do student parents experience in their daily lives; (2) when and where do student parents receive supports, and what form do these supports take; and (3) how do student parents perceive and value these supports? Using thematic analysis, we identified that participants experienced daily challenges due to a lack of mental health supports, adequate housing, childcare, and time. Six spheres of social support were shared by most of our participants: friendships, family members, intimate relationships, relationship with child/ren, mentorship, and program support. These spheres provided a variety of the three types of support distinguished by the social support hypothesis (i.e., emotional/social, tangible, and informational). Implications for the design of programs aiming to meaningfully support the well-being of student parents are discussed.