Associations between non-parental adult support and youths’ individual and contextual characteristics
Date
2021-01-15Author
Mirković, Barbara
Brady, Bernadine
Silke, Charlotte
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Mirković, Barbara, Brady, Bernadine, & Silke, Charlotte. (2021). Associations Between non-parental Adult Support and Youths’ Individual and Contextual Characteristics. Child Care in Practice, doi:10.1080/13575279.2020.1865875
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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 selfesteem, 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