An Enhanced Stress-Buffering Model of Social Support on Mental Health Outcomes of Low-Income Children

• Published in: Child indicators research 2022-12, Vol.15 (6), p.2289-2308
• Main Authors: Wen, Daniel J., Chong, Wan Har, Goh, Esther Chor Leng
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Buffering; Child Advocacy; Child and School Psychology; Child poverty; Children & youth; Early Childhood Education; Economic hardship; Externalizing problems; Friendship; Health problems; Health status; Internalization; Internalizing disorders; Low Income; Low income groups; Mental disorders; Mental health; Quality of Life Research; Social Sciences; Social support; Social Work; Stress; Teachers
• ISSN: 1874-897X; 1874-8988
• DOI: 10.1007/s12187-022-09958-w

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.