The role of social support in well-being and coping with self-reported stressful events in adolescents.
OBJECTIVE
This study investigated the role that social support plays in well-being and in coping after a stressful event in a group of non-clinical adolescents. Furthermore, this study aimed at replicating the finding that adolescents who reported sexual abuse reported more symptoms and less adequate coping strategies than adolescents who reported another type of stressful event or no stressful episode.


METHODS
Eight hundred and twenty adolescents between 12 and 18 years of age filled out questionnaires assessing social support (Social Support Questionnaire, Sarason, Shearin, Pierce, & Sarason, 1987), trauma-related symptoms (Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children, Briere, 1996), behavior problems (Youth Self-Report, Achenbach, 1991), and coping (How I Cope Under Pressure Scale, Ayers, Sandler, West, & Roosa, 1996).


RESULTS
42% of the adolescents reported a stressful experience, and 4.4% reported sexual abuse. Sexually abused adolescents reported more stress-related symptoms and used more avoidance and fewer support-seeking coping strategies than the other adolescents. The main-effect hypothesis of social support was sustained, but social support did not moderate the relation between a stressful event and coping. Yet, a trend was found suggesting that high support from the family was associated with less avoidance coping and more support-seeking in adolescents who reported a non-sexually abusive, stressful event.


CONCLUSIONS
Our findings show that a highly perceived availability of social support is directly associated with fewer trauma-related symptoms, especially in adolescents who are non-sexually abused. For adolescents who reported a sexual or another type of stressful event, social support did not play a different role in coping.
Bal
Sarah
S
Department of Experimental Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
Crombez
Geert
G
Van Oost
Paulette
P
Debourdeaudhuij
Ilse
I
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002650:Child Abuse, Sexual / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D000297:Psychology, Adolescent; D012650:Self Disclosure; D012944:Social Support; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires