Psycho-ecological study of social support systems in children

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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.