Webs of Support: An Integrative Framework of Relationships, Social Networks, and Social Support for Positive Youth Development

Abstract

Supportive relationships promote positive academic, behavioral, and psychological outcomes, while also buffering against negative outcomes. Traditionally, there has been a schism in how developmental scientists study relationships, with studies focused either on relationship quality and supports within dyads or general structures of relationships and social capital across social networks. While these lines of research provide insight into the power of relationships, resources, and networks for youth, they have not fully captured how relationships and resources operate in a relational developmental system. Drawing from relationship, social support, social capital, and social network literatures, this article presents a new framework, webs of support, to actualize how relationships and resources optimally operate to promote more accurate examinations of how adolescents gain the developmental supports necessary to thrive. This article also discusses implications and poses larger questions about the use of this framework in research and practice.