Associations Between non-parental Adult Support and Youths’ Individual and Contextual Characteristics

ABSTRACT

While the role parents play in supporting young people is well established, support from other caring adults also becomes important during adolescence, particularly when young people are facing problems in their lives. The goal of this paper is to reflect on youth support seeking when facing problems, exploring differences between youth who seek support from parents only and those who seek support from parents and other non-parental adults. This paper outlines the findings of a secondary analysis of data from the third wave of the Growing up in Ireland child cohort at 17/18 years, collected from primary caregivers and youth. From 6126 young people in the national sample, 91.3% answered the selective question about the type of adult support they seek. Of this cohort, 36% of young people seek support from a parent and 48% go to a parent and another adult. Comparing these groups, there are significant differences found in both their individual and contextual characteristics, with better outcomes for youth with additional non-parental adult support, including using active coping strategies, better self-esteem, and identity resolution. While the findings indicate that non-parental adults have a positive influence in different areas of youth well-being, further research is required to better understand the ways in which support from non-parental adults helps young people in their transition to adulthood.

KEYWORDS:

• Supportive adults
• natural mentors
• youth
• transition to adulthood
• parenting

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Irish Research Council [Grant Number GOIPG/2019/3425].

Notes on contributors

Barbara Mirković

Barbara Mirković is a Doctoral student and Assistant at the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre at NUI Galway.

Bernadine Brady

Bernadine Brady is a Lecturer and Senior Researcher at the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre at NUI Galway.

Charlotte Silke

Charlotte Silke is a Post-Doctoral Researcher at the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre at NUI Galway.