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Hope, Social Support, and Behavioral Problems in At-Risk Children

Authors:
Kristine amlund Hagen at The Norwegian Center for Child Behavioral Development
Kristine amlund Hagen
Barbara J. Myers
Barbara J. Myers
Barbara J. Myers
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Virginia H. Mackintosh at University of Mary Washington
Virginia H. Mackintosh
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Abstract

This study investigated the effects of hope, social support, and stress on behavioral problems in a high-risk group of 65 children of incarcerated mothers. Children with low levels of hope had more externalizing and internalizing problems. Children who perceived less social support had more externalizing problems, and children who had experienced more life stressors reported more internalizing problems. Regression analyses indicated that hope contributed unique variance to both internalizing and externalizing behavioral problems after social support and stress were controlled. These findings suggest that being confident in one's ability to overcome challenges and having a positive outlook function as protective factors, whereas being less hopeful may place a child at risk for developing adjustment problems. Whether it is possible to foster agency and teach pathways to children with lower levels of hope is discussed.
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... In addition to social support, research found that hope is an important adaptive pathway in dealing with stressors (Gungor, 2019;Hagen et al., 2005;Marques et al., 2009) ...
... In terms of education outcomes, hope has been found to be positively associated with greater academic achievements . Research also found that hopeful children tend to have better longer-term psychosocial well-being and fewer externalizing issues such as aggressiveness, as compared to less hopeful children (Hagen et al., 2005;Hellman et al., 2017). This paper hence examines the two related variables that influence the outcomes of low-income children, namely, school social support and children's level of hope. ...
... Despite hope's benefits, few studies have examined the relationship between social support and children's hope levels. This dearth of studies has however found that social support begets higher levels of hope amongst children (Gungor, 2019;Hagen et al., 2005;Lee & Hwang, 2016;Lopez et al., 2009). Particularly, studies suggested that stability and consistency in interaction from parents, caregivers and teachers could help build hope in children . ...
Identifying the Relationship Between Strength of School Social Support and Level of Hope in Children from Low-Income Families
Article
Full-text available
  • Nov 2023
  • Child Youth Care Forum
Background Poverty’s impact on children’s academic outcome is a cause for concern in most urban Asian cities as education is viewed as one of the main channels of social mobility. Few studies examined how poor children’s hope could be enhanced through school social support. Objective This paper examines how children from low-income families’ perceived frequencies and importance of social support from teachers and classmates, influence their levels of hope in academic achievement. Method Utilizing a partially-mixed sequential design—first, with survey data from a larger study on low-income children (n = 513), this paper explores if perceived frequency of social support is associated with level of hope as well as the role of perceived importance in moderating the frequencies of school social support on sense of hope; second, to enrich the child-reported results, two in-depth focus group discussions with elementary school teachers (n = 10) were conducted. Results Statistical analysis reveals that the frequency of social support from teachers and classmates is associated with the level of hope in low-income children. Furthermore, when teacher’s support was rated important by children, there was a positive association between social support and hope. Integrating statistical results and qualitative insights, this paper extends extant literature on social support typologies with a novel category; ‘support in providing opportunities for success’. Conclusion This paper underscores the important role schools play as a source of social support for children. Such social support aids higher hope levels in low-income children which could translate into better academic outcomes.
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... More specifically, participants in the PPI demonstrated a significant increase in their overall social skills and their perceived likeability after the intervention, while no change was evident in the control group. Since both optimism (Deptula et al., 2021;Weber et al., 2010) and hope (Hagen et al., 2005;Kemer & Atik, 2012) are related to increased perceived social support in youth, it is possible that by raising optimism and hope levels, the PPI also led to a significant increase in children's perception of how well-liked they are by their peers, as observed by the raise in their likeability levels. The absence of change in the social rules subscale should be expected given that the intervention did not aim at changing children's adherence to social rules. ...
... The final age difference concerned likeability, meaning children's perception of how popular they are with their peers (Danielson & Phelps, 2003), which significantly increased for younger children, but not for older ones. Previous research shows that perceived social acceptance is linked to mental health in children (Zimmer-Gembeck et al., 2007) and it is related to their self-esteem (Arslan, 2009), optimism (Deptula et al., 2021;Weber et al., 2010), and hope (Hagen et al., 2005;Kemer & Atik, 2012). It is therefore plausible that the significant increases in hope, optimism, and self-esteem also led to a raise in their popularity perception, but this was evident only for younger children. ...
"Feel Good -Think Positive", a school-based positive psychology intervention targeting optimism and hope in children
Article
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... The stress-buffering hypothesis states that positive traits moderate the potential negative effects of stress on psychological functioning and optimize event outcomes. This suggests that hope is an important mechanism mediating psychological adjustment (Cohen and Wills, 1985;Hagen et al., 2010). In this ever-changing world, hopeful individuals tend to have higher levels of career wellbeing (e.g., job satisfaction and career adaptability) to prepare for a successful life (Hirschi, 2014;Ding and Li, 2023). ...
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... Parents who feel supported by their social network experience lower levels of parenting stress and engage in more positive parenting practices, such as monitoring and effective parenting (e.g., Ayala-Nunes et al., 2017;Ghazarian & Roche, 2010;McConnell et al., 2011;Taylor et al., 2015). Consequently, this and the youths' perception of feeling supported might impact the youths' behaviour, such as displaying less externalising and delinquent behaviour (e.g., Ghazarian & Roche, 2010;Hagen et al., 2005;Hatch et al., 2020;Wight et al., 2006). Thus, YIM has clear benefits over formal mentoring and has the potential to buffer against the development of juvenile delinquency. ...
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Article
Full-text available
  • Feb 2024
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