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Revisiting Measures of Social Support on Mental Health among Transitions from Adolescent to Adulthood

Mon, August 13, 2:30 to 4:10pm, Pennsylvania Convention Center, Floor: Level 100, 113A

Abstract

We present the effect of different social support measure on mental health using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) of different sources of social support including parent, peer, and partner. These measures were developed with two specific goals: (1) to measure a broad range of social support constructs and represent a holistic view of different sources of social support using the life course perspective; and (2) to predict important dynamic resources of social support across different life stages on mental health that are useful for researchers and social scientists to revisit social support measures. Using the life course perspective, the sources of social support are changing across different life stage, and researchers need to pay more attention to apply the dynamic constructs of social support along with age on mental health. Using Wave 1 (1994-5) Add Health data, total of 20,745 US adolescents with diverse demographics are excellent national representative data to observe changes of social support across age and exhibit convergent validity with existing measures of social support. Using the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) in structural equation modeling, we construct the global measure of social support to depict changes of sources along with age and across different age groups on mental health. In addition, we showed the relative importance of the global measure of social support using the life course perspective for mental health outcomes and the benefits of revisiting individuals’ sources of social support beyond health and well-being. Potential uses of the new global measure of social support on mental health are discussed.

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