The sources of support and their relation on the global health of adopted and non-adopted adolescents

Abstract

Despite its importance, few studies have analysed the influence of social support on the global health of adoptees, especially during adolescence. Considering research claiming that the emotional and social development is one of the last areas to recover from an initial adversity in life, it would be expected that the influence of the social support received by adoptees would follow a different logic to that which characterises the normative population. The present study aims to analyse the roles of the family, friends, classmates and teachers and their relationship with global health, by exploring whether there are any differences between adoptees and nonadoptees. The sample consists of 28,768 adolescents aged between 11 and 18, who participated in the Spanish cross-sectional study Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC) 2014. In this sample, 394 were adopted. The results show that family support is more relevant for adoptees than non-adoptees, and classmate and teacher support is more relevant for non-adoptees than adoptees. In addition, in the case of adopted adolescents, there is no direct relationship between the school context and their global health; instead, the relationship is mediated by family and friends support.