School-Related Social Support as a Buffer to Stressors in the Development of Adolescent Life Satisfaction

Abstract

Adolescents who report high levels of satisfaction with their life tend to have better grades in school, fewer behavior problems, and positive long-term outcomes. For this reason, there is a growing interest in understanding how schools can promote life satisfaction. In this study, we examined how social support for learning (i.e., support provided by families, teachers, and peers related to learning) relates to adolescent life satisfaction. Further, we tested how this type of social support moderates the effect of stressful life events as a predictor of adolescent life satisfaction cross-sectionally and over a 6-month period. Cross sectional analyses revealed that peer, teacher, and family social support for learning had a small, but significant, association with life satisfaction (beta-weights between 0.10 and 0.21) and that peer support significantly moderated stressful life events (β = −.035). After a 6-month period, family support for learning was observed to have a significant main effect (β = .187) and moderated life stress (β = −0.109); but no other significant effects were observed. The results of this study suggest that social support for learning may be one malleable construct schools consider assessing to understand school-factors that influence student life satisfaction. In addition, schools may consider interventions that target family social support for learning, especially for students experiencing significant life stressors as one way to promote life satisfaction.