The Role of Supportive Adults in Promoting Positive Development in Middle Childhood

Abstract

The goal of this research was to examine the role of supportive adults to emotional well-being in a population of Grade 4 students attending public schools in Vancouver, Canada. Reflecting the ecology of middle childhood, we examined the extent to which perceived family, school, and neighborhood support relate to young people’s self-reported emotional well-being ( N = 3,026; 48% female; M age = 9.75). Furthermore, we investigated the hierarchy of importance among those support factors in predicting students’ well-being. As expected, adult support in all three ecological contexts was positively related to emotional well-being. School support emerged as the most important adult support factor, followed by home and neighborhood support. All three support factors emerged as stronger predictors than socioeconomic status (SES) in our study. We discuss our findings in relation to the empirical field of relationship research in middle childhood, and how our findings can inform educational practice.

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