Psycho-ecological study of social support systems in children

本研究通过对小学儿童社会支持网络结构的分析，探讨了小学儿童社会支持网络结构的稳定性，以及这些社会支持网络与儿童的特征，特别是自尊感和课堂孤立感之间的关系。本研究以一所女子小学四至六年级（每年级两个班）的学生为研究对象。一年后，四年级和五年级的学生都再次接受了测试。社会支持矩阵的构建，匹配的支持提供者和支持接受者在每个年级的每一个acr项目，以及超过14个项目的聚合。在本样本中，同学之间提供和接受的支持总量与男女同校系统中的同学之间没有差异，这表明日本小学儿童在学校接受/提供几乎相同水平的社会支持，而不管性别的社会和心理障碍。来自同一年级另一个班级的孩子的支持随着年级的增加而增加，这表明班级重建的累积效应每年都会重复。五年级和六年级的学生获得的支持量与提供的支持量之间的相关性较高，且每隔一年重测时，两种支持量的得分都比较稳定。研究结果表明，存在的个体差异，形成支持关系，与儿童的个性和人际变量，也对学校适应。对非对称性社会支持矩阵的分析显示，除了小学儿童的一般特征外，儿童之间还存在特定的关系。

The structure of elementary school children's social support networks was examined, presenting evidence of its stability and of how these social support systems are related to the child's characteristics, especially the child's sense of self-esteem and feelings of isolation in the classroom.Because the previous studies by the present authors revealed a strong tendency toward gender isolation in social support matrices in elementary school children, the 4-th to 6-th graders (two classes in each grade) in an elementary school for girls served as the subjects of the present study. Both 4-th and 5-th graders were tested again one year later. Social support matrices were constructed that matched support providers and support receivers in each grade foh eacr item, as well as for the aggregation over 14 items. The total amount of support among schoolmates provided and received in the present sample was not different from that among schoolmates in co-educational system, suggesting that Japanese elementary school children receive/provide nearly the same level social support in school irrespective of the social and psychological barrior by gender. Support from children from another class in the same grade increased with grade, suggesting the cumulative effect of class reconstruction repeated every year. Correlations between the amount of support received and provided were higher in the 5-th and 6-th graders, and these two kinds of scores were stable respectively when they were re-tested at the one-year interval. The findings suggest the existence of individual differences in forming support relationships that are related to children's personality and interpersonal variables, and also to school adjustment. Analyzes of non-symmetric social support matices revealed specific relationships among children in addition to general characteristics among elementary school children.