Social Support among Youth

Service Participation, Hardiness and Developmental Outcomes among Low-Income Young People in Hong Kong

“…This finding, together with those on work achievement and overall accomplishment, indicate that disadvantaged youth's participation in service programs has considerable positive impacts on their development. Consistent with previous research (Markward, McMillan, and Markward, 2003), service participation helps these young people's integration with the institutional sphere, particularly the school system and the labor market. As for mental health and behavioral adjustment, the results show that hardiness is the only variable that had a significant positive impact on the outcomes.…”

From obligations to negotiations: reciprocity and reflexivity in informal financial support

“…During the past decade, sociologists interested in the importance of the role of grandparents and other relatives in fulfilling family functions, have shed light on monetary relations beyond the nuclear household and, in particular, the flow of material resources downwards from older to younger generations (Kohli 1999, Attias-Donfut and Arber 2000, Bengtson 2001, Fritzell and Lennartssson 2005, Bjö rnberg and Latta 2007. Due to findings showing that people perceive not only the family but also friends as primary sources of social support (Markward et al 2003), there are reasons to assume that other kinds of relationships in the wider social network also supply important levels of protection, obligations, and responsibilities of importance for the individuals involved and thus, as a consequence, involve broader issues for social work practice.…”

Rethinking the Politics of Social Capital: Challenging Tocquevillian Perspectives

“…While middle class children generally demonstrate the same types of social supports as the children described here (Markward, McMillan and Markward, 2003), there were some hints in the children's discourse regarding their social class status. For example, Levonn's wish to change the physical appearance in his neighbourhood to attract people from far away demonstrates his sensitivity to how other people from the outside view him and his surroundings.…”