Supportive Others in the Lives of College Students and Their Relevance to Hope

Abstract

This paper considers the functions of supportive individuals in the lives of community college and 4-year college students and how such support can promote hope, defined as agency and pathways thinking. We surveyed 181 college students regarding their supportive relationships and found that parents were most likely to be nominated as a primary source of support and that frequently these parents were considered mentors by students. Highlighting research on developmental networks and the overlap in developmental tasks between adolescence and emerging adulthood, we consider these supportive relationships as opportunities for mentorship in which college students may receive the forms of support more akin to adolescent mentoring than professional mentoring. Students endorsed statements about being supported in values exploration, goal setting, and problem solving, and students who received more support, specifically problem-solving support, were more likely to be high in hope. Practical implications and future directions are discussed.