A LATENT CLASS ANALYSIS OF ADOLESCENTS’ SOCIAL SUPPORT: CONTEXTUAL ALIGNMENT, UNRELATED INFORMATION, AND THE IMPORTANCE OF OUT-OF-SCHOOL TIME

Abstract

During adolescence, youth may receive social support from multiple sources, including families, school staff, peers, and organized activities during out-of-school time (OST). Drawing from theories of social support and optimal matching, this study aimed to identify patterns of adolescents’ social support across four social contexts, and the associations of these patterns with educational and employment outcomes. Using data from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (N = 16,197), latent class analysis was used to identify patterns of social support across indicators of informational and appraisal support. Six classes were identified, and counter to hypotheses, classes varied not by the sources of support, but instead by the types of support and by OST participation. Levels of social support were similar across the four social contexts – demonstrating a “contextual alignment.” Higher informational support across classes appeared unrelated to educational and employment outcomes. Instead, classes with higher appraisal support and OST participation were associated with stronger educational and employment outcomes. Findings highlight the importance of both appraisal support and OST participation for adolescents’ developmental trajectories.

Keywords:

• adolescence
• social support
• educational attainment
• employment
• extracurricular activities
• afterschool programs
• organized activities
• out-of-school time
• youth programs
• youth development

Compliance With Ethical Standards

This research study was conducted using publicly available deidentified data from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002). The Institutional Review Board of the first author’s University was consulted and it was determined that IRB review was not required.

Consent To Participate

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants and/or legal guardians of minors included in the study at the time of original data collection. This study conducts secondary analyses on publicly available data from the ELS:2002, which was collected by the U.S. Department of Education. For participants under 18 years of age, informed consent was obtained from parents and child assent at each round of data collection; for participants over 18 years of age, informed consent was obtained at each round of data collection (Ingles et al., 2014, 2004, 2007, 2005).

Disclosure Statement

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

Research Data

This study uses publicly available deidentified data from the ELS:2002, which is available online at https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/els2002/.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported in part by a Syracuse University Falk College Seed Grant..