Psycho-ecological study of social support systems in children

我们研究了小学生社会支持网络的结构，提供了其稳定性的证据，以及这些社会支持系统如何与儿童的特征相关，特别是儿童的自尊感和课堂上的孤立感。本研究以一女子小学四至六年级（每年级两班）学生为研究对象，根据前人的研究结果，发现小学生在社会支持矩阵中存在较强的性别孤立倾向。一年后，四年级和五年级的学生再次接受了测试。构建社会支持矩阵，匹配支持提供者和支持接受者在每个等级的每一个项目，以及超过14个项目的聚合。本样本中同学之间提供和接受的支持总量与男女同校的同学之间没有差异，这表明日本小学生在学校获得/提供的社会支持几乎相同，而不受性别的社会和心理障碍的影响。同年级其他班级的支持随着年级的增加而增加，表明班级重建的累积效应每年都在重复。5年级和6年级学生接受的支持量与提供的支持量之间的相关性较高，且每隔1年重新进行一次测试，这两项得分均保持稳定。研究结果表明，在形成支持关系方面存在个体差异，这与儿童的个性和人际变量有关，也与学校适应有关。对非对称社会支持矩阵的分析揭示了小学生社会支持的一般特征之外，儿童之间的特殊关系。

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.