Social Support Perception of Early, Middle and Late Adolescents, and Its Impact on Physical Health Symptoms

Adolescence as a developmental period is characterised by tremendous physiological and psychosocial change. Post-childhood, adolescents report a decline in social support and an increase in physical health symptoms. Social support during adolescence, has been linked to health outcomes both concurrently and longitudinally into adulthood. Limited research has explored the differences in social support perception and its effect on physical health symptoms across stages of adolescence and sociodemographic characteristics. The purpose of study was to examine differences in social support perception across three developmental substages and three sociodemographic subgroups of adolescents (10 to 19 years); and to measure the impact of social support and sociodemographic factors on physical health symptoms across these subgroups. The Interpersonal Support Evaluation List and Cohen-Hoberman Inventory of Physical Health Symptoms were utilised for data collection in nine educational establishments in South Goa, India. Using purposive sampling, 1242 adolescents (651 females) representing early (n=408), middle (n=433), and late (n=401) adolescents participated in the study. Results reveal that social support was significantly lower among middle (14-16 years) compared to early (10-13 years) and late (17-19 years) adolescents; and lower among rural compared to urban adolescents. Gender and joint/nuclear family status did not differentiate social support perception. Social support, progression in stages of adolescence (age), gender, and residence (in order of unique predictive variance), independently explained physical symptoms. Higher physical health symptoms were associated with lower social support, later stages of adolescence/age, female gender, and rural residence. Social support was the most influential predictor of symptoms in early, middle, late, male, female, urban, rural, and adolescents from joint families. Among adolescents from nuclear families, being female was a greater predictor of health symptoms than social support. In early adolescents, after social support, residence explained next most independent variance in symptoms. While among middle and late adolescents, gender explained most added variance in symptoms, after social support. Findings highlight differences in social support perception, and the role of social support and sociodemographic variables on physical health symptoms of adolescents. Findings suggest that improving interpersonal support of adolescents may benefit their physical health. Multi-stakeholder interventions are discussed.