Stress, parent and friend support, and psychological adjustment during a school transition

Abstract

This research examines the relation of stress and social support to psychological adjustment of preadolescents and adolescents during a school transition. 124 sixth graders and 131 ninth graders reported on social support (satisfaction with parent and friend support), stressors (life event stressors and daily hassles), and psychological symptomatology (anxiety, depressive symptoms, and delinquent behaviors) at the end of a school year before making a transition to a new school, and again in the beginning of the new school year after they had moved. The results demonstrated that both friends and parents are important providers of support for children making the transition to middle school and high school. There was support for both the main effects and buffering models of the stress-social support relationship. Main effects suggested that children with high parent support had lower self-reported anxiety, depression, and delinquent behaviors. High friend support predicted lower levels of depressive symptoms and delinquent behaviors. Buffering effects were evident in levels of depressive symptoms only, with life event stressors buffered by high friendship intimacy and satisfaction with friend support. Daily hassles were buffered by both friend and parent support, with the most prominent effect for parent support on depression for children who had high levels of daily hassles. Sex and grade differences also emerged in measures of social support and psychological symptomatology. Girls' friendships compared to boys' were higher in stability, satisfaction with support, and intimate exchanges. In addition, girls reported higher levels of anxiety, while boys were higher in self-reported delinquent behaviors. Grade differences suggested that older students were higher in psychological symptomatology and friendship intimacy than their younger counterparts. At the same time, these older students reported significantly less satisfaction with parent support than younger students.