Trajectories of perceived support from family, friends, and lovers in the transition to adulthood

Abstract

Trajectories of perceived support from family, friends, and lovers were examined in 923 high school seniors surveyed across the transition to adulthood (ages 18, 19, 20, 22, and 25). Growth models revealed a cubic pattern of support from family members, which peaked at age 20, no change in friend support, and a linear decrease in lover support. Women reported higher levels of support than did men for all sources except fathers. Over time, friend and lover support decreased for women but increased for men. Both mother and father support were higher among young people who had left home, and cohabitation/marriage was associated with lower friend support and higher lover support. Support in close social relationships in the early 20s is dynamic; personal characteristics (e.g., gender) and life course transitions such as leaving home and marriage contribute to changing levels of perceived support.

Gender similarity in growth patterns of support toward friends during young adulthood

“…Longitudinal studies of prosocial toward friends during young adulthood show many different trajectories for men and women such as men increasing and women decreasing (Galambos et al, ), the opposite pattern (Pettit et al, ), or no significant gender differences (De Goede et al, ). Various explanations have been proffered to explain these patterns such as mapping helping behaviors to gender‐typical behaviors of men and women (e.g., men more likely to help in heroic settings, women more emotionally empathic; see Carlo & Randall, ).…”

“…Studies of friend‐based emotional support or friend‐oriented helping behavior often show gender discrepancies with boys/men scoring lower than girls/women (Hastings, McShane, Parker, & Ladha, ; Rose & Rudolph, ; Storch, Nock, Masia‐Warner, & Barlas, ) or gender‐differentiated patterns of change over time (Galambos, Fang, Horne, Johnson, & Krahn, ; Pettit et al, ; Van der Graaff, Carlo, Crocetti, Koot, & Branje, ). A significant issue in this literature is a heavy reliance on group comparison methods to determine gender differences.…”

“…Group comparison methods are geared toward finding differences which tends to underemphasize the presence of intragroup variance (Hyde, ). Though this information is not new for social science researchers, the majority of gender‐oriented, prosocial behavior analyses continue to use group comparison methods such as ANOVAs or multiple group comparison in SEM (e.g., Fehr, ; Fuhrman et al, ; Galambos et al, ; Lee & Goldstein, ). The type or manner of prosocial behavior is another important factor that influences gender trajectories.…”

“…Given the interesting social and emotional developments that occur as people mature, it is important to track the pattern of support toward friends in young adulthood. Indeed, researchers have been interested in tracking friendship‐based emotional support during this critical transition period (De Goede, Branje, Duin, Valk, & Meeus, ; Galambos et al, ; Pettit et al, ), and pay particular attention on how gender might affect helping trajectories.…”

Convoys of perceived support from adolescence to midlife

“…The current study analyzes data from 963 participants who answered at least one perceived support question at ages 18, 25, or 43. Study details are available elsewhere (Galambos et al, 2018).…”