Abstract
Low-Income children are susceptible to mental health problems. While social support has been found to protect children from these issues, most studies focus on the frequency of support rather than the importance of support. The importance of support refers to subjective value that the child places on the support provided. The present study investigated whether social support from parents, teacher, classmates or close friends was related to internalizing and externalizing problems, in 513 low-income children between 7 and 12 years of age. We investigated if these associations followed a main effect model, stress-buffering model or enhanced stress-buffering model. When parent support was considered important by the child, there were positive associations of economic hardship and internalizing problems. Furthermore, when parent support was frequent, or both infrequent and important, there was a positive association between economic hardship and externalizing problems. Conversely, teacher support that was considered important by the child was protective for internalizing problems in children. In addition, teacher support that was frequent and considered important, was protective for children’s externalizing problems. Implications arising from the study are discussed.
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The datasets generated during and analysed during the current study are not publicly available due to the sensitive nature of the population.
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This research project is funded by the Singapore Ministry of Education Social Science Research Thematic Grant MOE2016-SSRTG-039 granted to the third author.
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D.J. Wen, W.H. Chong and E.C.L. Goh developed the study concept. Data collection was performed by D.J. Wen and E.C.L. Goh. D.J. Wen performed the data analysis. W.H. Chong provided statistical advice for the data analysis. All of the authors contributed to the interpretation of results. D.J. Wen drafted the manuscript. All of the authors reviewed and edited several versions of the manuscript and provided critical revisions. All of the authors approved the final manuscript for submission.
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Wen, D.J., Chong, W.H. & Goh, E.C.L. An Enhanced Stress-Buffering Model of Social Support on Mental Health Outcomes of Low-Income Children. Child Ind Res 15, 2289–2308 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-022-09958-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-022-09958-w