Perceived social support and quality of life among adolescents in residential youth care: a cross-sectional study

Does All Social Support Work? Examining the Mechanisms of Patient-Reported Symptom Interference after Esophagectomy Affecting Life Satisfaction

Purpose

We intended to explore the chain mediation role of resilience and different sources of social support on the relationship between symptom interference and life satisfaction from the patient-reported perspective.

Patients and Methods

Two hundred and twenty-six patients after esophagectomy were investigated using four validated scales to estimate the symptom interference, resilience, different sources of social support, and life satisfaction. The chain mediation analysis was conducted using SPSS PROCESS Macro Model 6.

Results

Mediation analysis showed that symptom interference indirectly influenced life satisfaction through two significant mediating pathways: (i) resilience (B = -0.138, 95% CI: -0.194 to -0.091); (ii) the chain mediators involving in resilience and family support (B = -0.049, 95% CI: -0.073 to -0.026). Surprisingly, the mediating pathway of family support was not significant.

Conclusion

Interventions for resilience and family support could mitigate the adverse effects of symptom interference in patients after esophagectomy, improving life satisfaction. Of these, resilience may be more critical in terms of the utilization of social resources than family support.

Bullying Victims' Perceived Social Support and Psychological Health and Prosocial Behavior: A Latent Profile Analysis

The literature on school bullying and perceived social support primarily relies on variable-centered approaches, investigating the independent effects of individual sources of social support. However, victims of school bullying perceive different combinations of levels of social support from multiple sources. Hence, there lacks a holistic person-centered examination of the joint effects of multiple sources of social support. The study surveyed 915 bullying victims (51.9% boys, 48.1% girls; Mage = 13.52, SD = 0.75). Latent profile analysis identified five profiles of social support across five sources (i.e., parents, teachers, classmates, close friends, and online-only friends): online-offline supported adolescents, offline supported adolescents, moderately supported adolescents, close friend supported adolescents, and unsupported. The five social support profiles were associated differently with bullying victims' demographic characteristics (i.e., age, gender, and socioeconomic status), frequency of victimization, psychological health (i.e., subjective well-being, depression, and anxiety), and prosocial behavior. The findings support the heterogenous nature of social support perceived by bullying victims and offer insights into more tailored interventions aimed at promoting the development victims in different subgroups.

Social and Emotional Skills in at-Risk Adolescents through Participation in Sports

(1) Background: Adolescents who are under the care of child and youth institutions are vulnerable due to factors that can include disruption to family structure or education and adverse experiences. They often experience poor or unstable support systems, leaving them at risk of delinquency. In this context, sports engagement may provide a stable structure and have positive effects in this population. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions, knowledge, beliefs, and behaviors regarding social and emotional skills among at-risk adolescents, with a specific focus on their engagement in sports. (2) Methods: Ninety-six adolescents aged 12 to 17 years (66 female, 30 male), residing in child and youth care institutions across Italy, Portugal, the UK, and Turkey, participated in this study. The participants were divided into 14 focus groups, each with six to eight participants of similar ages. (3) Results: Thematic analysis revealed four main themes: Emotional causes of behavioral problems; Emotional skills to regain control; Social support makes sports worthwhile; Sport as a socio-emotional resource. (4) Conclusions: The study findings highlight that although sports create many challenging emotional situations for these adolescents, they also provides resources that may help them cope with their emotions within and beyond sports.

Perceived social support and COVID-19 impact on quality of life in college students: an observational study

BACKGROUND

The purposes of this study were to assess the current status of perceived social support and COVID-19 impact on quality of life, to investigate the association of perceived social support with the COVID-19 impact on quality of life, and to examine differences in perceived social support between better and worse COVID-19 impact on quality of life for the total sample and by gender.

METHODS

Participants included 1296 university students (399 male, 871 female, 22 transgender, non-binary, or other) with a mean age of 21.5 (SD  =  2.6 years) from a large public university in the Midwest region of the US. Students voluntarily completed two questionnaires and demographic information via Qualtrics based on a cross-sectional study design. The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) is a 12-item survey used to assess an individual's perception of social support from significant others, friends, and family. The COVID-19-Impact on Quality of Life scale (COVID-19 QoL) is a 6-item scale used to assess the impact of COVID-19 on quality of life. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, multiple linear regression, independent t-tests, and ANCOVA.

RESULTS

Multiple linear regression showed that perceived social support from family was a significant predictor of COVID-19 QoL (F = 35.154, p < .01) for the total sample. Further, t-test demonstrated significant differences between males and females on perceived social support (t = -2.184, p < .05) as well as COVID-19 QoL (t = -5.542, p < .01). Results of ANCOVA demonstrated a significant group effect on perceived social support for both males (F = 10.054, p < .01, η² = .025) and females (F = 5.978, p < .05, η² = 0.007), indicating that the better quality of life group scored higher on perceived social support than low quality of life.

CONCLUSIONS

Social support from family may act as a key buffer for quality of life during the fall semester of 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic in college students. With social interactions restricted during COVID-19, maintained access to social support is highly important.KEY MESSAGESSocial support is a crucial contributing factor to the impact of COVID-19 on quality of life, and support from social relationships may buffer these challenging and unpredictable times.The COVID-19 pandemic may have impacted the quality of life of males and females differently.

Resilience mediates the effect of peer victimization on quality of life in Chongqing adolescents: from a perspective of positive childhood experiences

Background

Peer victimization is a harmful experience that contributed to one's psychological problems, physical health deterioration, and so on. Quality of life (QoL) is an important indicator of adolescent health assessment. To identify potential pathways of positive experiences in preventing peer victimization's detrimental effects and then provide intervention ideas for adolescent health, this study was conducted to examine the relationship between peer victimization and QoL in Chongqing adolescents and discover whether resilience plays a mediating role and positive childhood experiences (PCEs) act as a moderating role in the relationship.

Methods

Data were the first follow-up of a cohort study conducted in four complete middle schools in two districts of Chongqing, China. Self-designed peer victimization items, the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, the Adolescent Quality of Life Scale, and the Benevolent Childhood Experiences Scale were used. We investigated the differences and correlations in peer victimization, QoL, and resilience between the two PCEs groups. Mplus version 8.3 was used to analyze the mediating role of resilience and the moderating role of PCEs in peer victimization and QoL.

Results

Peer victimization, resilience, and QoL differed between the two PCEs groups (P < 0.001). Peer victimization negatively correlated with QoL and resilience, while resilience positively correlated with QoL (P < 0.001). In the models with total QOL as the dependent variable, the indirect effect was -0.431 (8.08% of the total effect) in the low-PCEs group vs. -2.077 (41.97% of the total effect) in the high-PCEs group. In the models with four dimensions of QOL as the dependent variable, the indirect effects ranged from -0.054 to -0.180 (6.07-12.95% of the total effects) in the low-PCEs group and from 0.295 to -0.823 in the high-PCEs group (35.89-68.76% of the total effects). Both total and indirect effects were significant (P < 0.05). In addition, the differences in indirect effects were significant between the two PCEs groups (P < 0.05), while differences in total and direct effects were almost not apparent.

Conclusion

Resilience partially mediated the effect of peer victimization on QoL in Chongqing adolescents, and PCEs moderated this mediation. Schools, families, and society should focus on resilience intervention and prioritize the enhancement of PCEs for improving adolescent QoL.

Factors Associated with Willingness toward Organ Donation in China: A Nationwide Cross-Sectional Analysis Using a Social–Ecological Framework

Improving public willingness toward organ donation is an important solution to the low organ donation rate. This study aimed to explore factors impacting public willingness for organ donation in China from a multi-agent perspective and further explore the impact of these factors on high or low willingness, using a social–ecological framework. Data from a total of 11,028 (effective rate, 94.18%) participants were analysed. Generalised linear model (GLM) and quantile regression were used to explore factors associated with willingness and high/low willingness toward organ donation, respectively. The mean willingness toward organ donation was 56.9 (range, 0–100) points. GLM regression revealed that age, family health, males, lower educational levels, and agricultural hukou were negatively associated with willingness. For personality, conscientiousness was negatively associated with willingness, whereas openness was positively associated with willingness. Health literacy perceived social support, and media utilisation were positively associated with willingness. Quantile regression further indicated that educational levels of college, bachelor, master’s, and PhD, openness, health literacy, perceived social support, and media utilisation were positively associated with organ donation willingness at all percentiles. It is necessary to adopt more targeted and diversified publicity, education, and guidance for different types of individuals. Meanwhile, social support needs to be strengthened. To enhance the willingness of the residents to donate organs, media publicity should be strengthened, particularly by using modern ways to improve their health literacy.

Personal Stories of Young Women in Residential Care: Health-Promoting Strategies and Wellbeing

Interdisciplinary social work practice produces and circulates narratives of young women in residential care. The dominant narratives often present negative descriptions of this group, and less attention has been paid to their resistance to these "big stories". This study's aim is to illuminate this resistance of young women in residential care and to explore how they narrate their experiences of being children at risk who have become women managing everyday life. This study utilises a narrative approach and includes three selected personal stories: two from the participants and one from the first author's reflections on resistance. Through contextual analysis at the macro, meso and micro levels, we focus on how personal stories can influence interdisciplinary social work services. We found resistance to dominant narratives on the different levels in the chosen stories. Resistance can create space to reconstruct and renarrate reality together and help understand the meaning and power of storytelling and silence. Participants' resistance can be a tool to rebalance the power between social work practitioners and service users. Based on this analysis, we suggest that interdisciplinary collaborative social work should emphasise service users' personal stories to a higher degree and, in this way, increase user participation in residential care.