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

Abstract

Background Residential youth care (RYC) institutions aim to provide care and stability for vulnerable adolescents with several previous and present challenges, such as disrupted attachments, wide-ranging adverse childhood experiences, mental health problems, and poor quality of life (QoL). To the best of our knowledge, the present study is the first to provide knowledge of the associations between perceived social support and QoL and to explore the potential moderating effect of perceived social support on QoL for adolescents who have experienced maltreatment and polyvictimization. Methods All RYC institutions with adolescents between the ages 12–23 in Norway were asked to participate in the study. A total of 86 institutions housing 601 adolescents accepted the invitation, from which 400 adolescents volunteered to participate. The Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Interview was used to gather information on maltreatment histories and degree of victimization; the Kinder Lebensqualität Fragebogen was used to measure QoL through several domains (overall QoL, physical well-being, emotional well-being, and self-esteem); and the Social Support Questionnaire was used to measure perceived social support. Linear regression and independent samples t-test were used to study the associations between perceived social support and QoL as well as the potential moderating effect of perceived social support in the association between maltreatment history and QoL. Results Perceived social support was positively associated with QoL for both girls and boys, with domain-specific findings. A higher number of different types of support persons was associated with overall QoL, emotional well-being, and self-esteem for boys, but only with self-esteem for girls. Individual social support from RYC staff and friends was associated with higher QoL for girls. However, perceived social support did not moderate the association between maltreatment history and reduced QoL for either sex. Conclusions This study emphasizes the importance of maintaining social support networks for adolescents living in RYC, the crucial contribution of RYC staff in facilitating social support, and the potential value of social skills training for these vulnerable adolescents. Furthermore, a wider range of initiatives beyond social support must be carried out to increase QoL among adolescents with major maltreatment and polyvictimization experiences.

Fatores associados à qualidade de vida relacionada à saúde em adolescentes escolares com excesso de peso na pandemia de COVID-19

“…Enquanto para meninos, muitas vezes, a interação com amigos é fundamental, para as meninas, eventualmente e considerando o contexto, o apoio de adultos é mais relevante que de seus pares, impactando, portanto, de forma diferente nos escores de QVRS (Singstad et al, 2021).…”

The mediating role of social climate in the association of youth and residential service characteristics and quality of life.

“…In addition, youth with a higher number of earlier experienced adversities and with the experience of maltreatment reported a lower QoL (Greger et al, 2016). Finally, Singstad et al (2021) showed that youth QoL is positively associated with perceived social support from TRC staff.…”

“…The primary goal is to provide care and parenting substitution to young people to catch up with typical adolescent development regarding education and social life, reducing social and psychological problems of the residents and improving their QoL, through relationships with staff members and the resident group. TRCs in Norway are not considered to be treatment facilities, so direct services (e.g., mental health treatments) are provided by other agencies (Singstad et al, 2021).…”

“…QoL concerns the perception of well-being in various life domains (e.g., physical, and emotional well-being, school, friends, and family; Ravens-Sieberer & Bullinger, 2000; Singstad et al, 2021). A high QoL is associated with lower societal costs (Wallander & Koot, 2016) and a useful universal indicator of success in programs advancing the well-being of young people through interventions, programs, or policies (Jozefiak et al, 2017; Wallander & Koot, 2016).…”

Peer Group: A New Approach of Nursing Intervention

“…This will provide more insight into the roles of different social support providers in improving the quality of life of adolescents. This study is important because adolescents who are in residential institutions need the importance of a lot of social support in their lives to improve their quality of life (Singstad et al, 2021 The use of information technology in implementing peer support needs to be developed. This study aims to create a peer group support-based platform for someone who experiences disorders due to drug use.…”