The correlation of perceived social support and self – Awareness among adolescents

Tạp chí Khoa học và Giáo dục, Trường Đại học Sư phạm Huế ISSN 1859-1612, Số 04(32)/2014: tr. 13-21 THE CORRELATION OF PERCEIVED SOCIAL SUPPORT AND SELF – AWARENESS AMONG ADOLESCENTS NGUYEN PHUOC CAT TUONG DINH THI HONG VAN - TRAN THI HOA College of Education, Hue University Abstract: The present study examined the relationship between perceived social support and self-awareness among adolescents. Participants were 150 students in the 8 th and 9 th grade of Phong Hien Secondary School, Phong Dien, Thua Thien Hue Province. The Self-Awareness Questionnaire and the Multiple Perceived Social Support were completed for the examination. The data were analyzed using the Pearson-r coefficient. An overall correlation of 0.34 was found signifying a positive relationship between self-awareness and perceived social support. This positive correlation remained remarkably consistent across gender. Specifically, sub-types of self-awareness were all associated with support levels from family, friends and significant others. Some implications were also proposed to optimize the role of social support, which in turn, effectively helps enhance the self-awareness among adolescents. Key words: correlation, self-awareness, social support, adolescents 1. INTRODUCTION Self-awareness is the ability to recognize and understand personal moods and emotions and drives, as well as their effect on others. Hallmarks of self-awareness include self- confidence, realistic self-assessment, and a self-deprecating sense of humor (Goldman, 1998). Self-awareness develops rapidly and strongly when children turn to adolescence – a time of cognitive, social and physical changes (Cox & Pyszczynski, 2004). In this challenging time, adolescents start experiencing the journey “I find myself”. They begin to recognize and re-evaluate themselves to answer the toughest question “Who am I?“. For many children, the imbalance between the “external self” (changes in body and sexual organs...) and the “internal self” (the manner of conduct, the understanding about their own body and others’...) makes children feel nervous and confused about themselves (Gecas, 1972). They become sensitive, vulnerable and are more likely to act against their parents or teachers’ expectations. Suicide commitment, law violations, unwanted pregnancies, etc... might be the result of adolescents’ deviant self-awareness (Kahriman, 2002). Many theorists and researchers have agreed that adolescence is the time of crisis when children have the most deviant thoughts and behaviors if parents, adults concerned and peers do not have timely and effective interventions to help them build a sound and positive image about themselves (Hoffman, Ushpiz, Levy – Shiff, 1988). Parents and friends can give good advice and precise evaluations based on which adolescents can see and present themselves correctly. Moreover, some adolescents often base self- confidences on being shared, listened, loved, attractive, and competent. For others, self- 14 NGUYỄN PHƯỚC CÁT TƯỜNG và cs. esteem may depend on being powerful, virtuous, or self-reliant (Budd, Buschman & Esch,). Social support, which is defined as a network of family, friends, neighbors, and community members that are available in times of need to give psychological, physical, and financial help (Kahriman, 2002) may play such an important role in building and developing adolescents’ insights and self-awareness. Noticeably, the true significance of social support exists in the quality of social relationships as perceived by an individual as Corcoran & Fischer (1989) view it, “social support is in fact support only if the individual believes it is available” (p. 779). Much research has been conducted to discover how social support affects self- awareness. A statistically significant positive relation between perceived social support levels and self- esteem levels of adolescents was found in the study of Ikiz and Cakar (2010).The research by Hoffman et al. (1988) also revealed that maternal support had a strong effect on self- esteem. Aid from friends was influential primarily when that of mothers was absent. In 1997, Dekovic & Meeus found that negative self-concepts result from poor parental relations. Research done by Pierre also supports the view that, “Parental educational expectations were most influential for both male and female students and student perceptions of parent presence played a role in their achievement in many instances.” (p. 35). In another analysis, researchers found that father absence affects childhood self- evaluation and descriptions, which in turn affect self-attributions and interpersonal relationships in adolescence. Kirshner (1992) explored a psychodynamic model to show the effects of father absence on the adolescent and found it crucial for families to have involved father figures. In 2006, Forney, Crutsinger, & Forney affirmed that peer social acceptance perception strongly related to positive self-worth and self. Positive peer relations can cause adolescents to feel they have worth with others so they are encouraged to perform tasks and succeed in them in spite of the challenges encountered. However, over the years, there have been still conflicting results from studies on the effect of social supports on children’s self-awareness. Several studies have found a strong correlation between high maternal supports and high self-esteem and self-efficacy in children, but paternal support had little effect (Hoffman et al, 1988). Moreover, in 2001, Ryan suggested that several adolescents draw to peers who share similar concerns and preferences, which can result in both negative and positive outcomes in shaping their self- image (Brown, 2004). Although some adolescents share commonalities, their lack of interpersonal skills can result in negative thinking, behaviours and reactions. The quality of social support, therefore, should be concerned (MacDonald & Leary, 2005). In this context, this study was devised to confirm this correlation in detail. 2. METHOD 2.1. Participants The population for this study was comprised of secondary students attending Phong Hien Secondary School, Phong Dien, Thua Thien Hue Province. 150 students (females and males) completed the study. THE CORRELATION OF PERCEIVED SOCIAL SUPPORT... 15 2.2. Measures The Self-Awareness Questionnaire This study utilized the Self-Awareness Questionnaire from the website www.silverandclaret.com, which professionally organizes online training courses on leadership skills and soft skills. This 16 - item questionnaire is designed based on the perspective of self-awareness of Goleman [1995] measuring three domains of self- awareness: Emotional Self-Awareness (3 items, e.g. Recognises the situations that trigger own emotions), Accurate Self-Assessment (6 items, e.g. Compensates for own limitations by working), and Self-Confidence (7 items, e.g. Believes oneself to be among the most capable for a job and more likely to succeed with others with the necessary strengths). The items are rated on a 6 - point scale ranging from 1 “never,” to 6 “always”. The Questionnaire was translated into Vietnamese and the internal consistency reliability of the present sample was 79. Adapted Hong Kong Version of Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (Cheng & Chang, 2004) The adapted version MSPSS by Cheng & Chang (2004) provides assessment of three sources of support: family (FA), friends (FR), and significant other (SO). It has 12 items in total: 4 for FA (e.g. I get the emotional help and support I need from my family), 4 FR (e.g. I can count on my friends when things go wrong) , and 4 SO (e.g. There is a special person in my life that cares about my feelings). Items were rated on a 5-point scale from 0 “strongly disagree” to 4 “strongly agree”. Higher scores from the subscales indicate higher perceived social support from respected groups. The MSPSS has been shown to have good internal reliability as measured by Cronbach Alpha’s (.88). The Vietnamese- translated version of MSPSS also demonstrated strong internal consistency in the present sample (Cronbach’s alpha=.83). Statistical analysis Pearson coefficient correlations were calculated to assess the correlations between the perceived social support and self-awareness among adolescents. 3. RESULTS 3.1. General level of self – awareness and social support of the group In order to assess the level of self-awareness and social support of the adolescents, some descriptive statistical data were necessarily used. Means, standard deviations of self- awareness and social support of the group were computed and are presented in Table 1. 16 NGUYỄN PHƯỚC CÁT TƯỜNG và cs. Table 1. Means, Standard deviations of Self-Awareness and Social Support for the Group Self - Awareness Mean Standard deviation Social Support Mean Standard deviation Overall ES AA SC 3.85 3.85 4.05 3.68 0.71 1.00 0.92 0.89 Overall FA FR SO 34.13 11.32 11.13 11.67 6.74 2.96 2.87 2.67 Note: ES: Emotion Self-awareness; AA: Accurate Assessment; SC: Self-Confidence; FA: Family; FR: Friends; SO: Special Others As can be seen from Table 1, the self-awareness of the adolescents is above the average level. Out of the three domains, Accurate Assessment was highest rated. On the MPSS, the figures revealed that the adolescents were receiving great support from families, friends and significant others. 3.2. Differences between male and female adolescents in self-awareness and social support Before conducting correlational analyses, difference between male and female students, was examined on all variables in this study. This examination aimed to confirm whether the difference in social support would lead to the difference in self – awareness. This examination, therefore, firstly contributed to the affirmation of the correlation between perceived social support and self – awareness among adolescents. Table 2. The Self -Awareness Gender-Equivalent Scores Self - Awareness Males (n = 118) Females (n=132) t test Mean SD Mean SD Overall ES AA SC 4.03 4.15 3.99 4.01 0.92 1.13 1.01 0.97 3.79 3.75 4.07 3.57 0.63 0.93 0.90 0.84 1,75 2.16* 0.45 2.62* Note: * p < 0.05; ES: Emotion Self – Awareness; AA: Accurate Assessment; SC: Self - Confidence Table 3. The Social Support Gender-Equivalent Scores Social Support Males (n = 118) Females (n=132) t test Mean SD Mean SD Overall FA FR SO 35.89 12.13 12.08 11.67 5.72 2.21 2.04 2.14 33.54 11.05 10.82 11.67 6.96 3.13 3.04 2.82 1.8* 1.9* 2.3* 0.06 Note: Note: FA: Family; FR: Friends; SO: Special Others; Emotion Self-Awareness; AA: Accurate Assessment; SC: Self-Confidence THE CORRELATION OF PERCEIVED SOCIAL SUPPORT... 17 In general, it can be noted that male adolescents were receiving greater social support than female adolescents, and they also performed skills of self-awareness better than female ones. This result, at least, partly revealed that ones with greater social support endorsed better self-awareness. 3.3. Correlation between social support and self-awareness among adolescents To examine the relationships among the variables of the study, correlational analyses were conducted. As can be seen in Table 4, overall self-awareness experienced by adolescents was significantly related to overall social support and to all of the three sources of social support (family, friends and special others). It means as perceived social support increased, individual self-awareness would also increase. Table 4. The correlation between Social Support and Self-Awareness among adolescents Domains Overall EW AA SC Overall .34** .08 .15 .45** FA .39** .01 .16 .52** FR .20* .04 .00 .33** SO .21** .03 .21* .19* Note: FA: Family; FR: Friends; SO: Special Others; Emotion Self-Awareness; AA: Accurate Assessment; SC: Self-Confidence Moreover, the overall scores of support from Family have the strongest positive correlation with the overall scores of self-awareness. Specifically, a statistically significant positive relation between overall perceived social support levels, support levels from Family, Friends and Special Others and Self-Confidence levels of adolescents was found. Besides, support levels from Special Others were also significantly positively correlated with Accurate Assessment levels of adolescents. Table 5. The correlation between Social Support and Self-Awareness among adolescents across gender Domains Overall EW AA SC M F M F M F M F Overall .34* .34* .39* -.05 .20 .15 .36* .46* FA .22 .45** .24 0.02 .10 .19* .29 .59* FR .29 .15 .29 .-06 .16 -.02 .33* .31** SO .40* .16 .46** -.09 .29 .19* .37* .14 In order to confirm the positive correlation between self-awareness and perceived social support among adolescents, the correlational analyses were separately provided for male and female adolescents. The figures from the Table 8 revealed that, in general, overall perceived social support was significantly related to overall self-awareness and Self- Confidence for both male and female groups. Support from friends significantly associated with Self-Confidence for both groups. In particular, for male adolescents, support levels from Special Others had a positive correlation with overall self- awareness, Emotion Self-Awareness and Self-Confidence, support levels from Friends 18 NGUYỄN PHƯỚC CÁT TƯỜNG và cs. were significantly related to Self-Confidence levels. For female adolescents, support levels from Families were significantly associated with overall self-awareness, Accurate Assessment and Self-Confidence. 4. DISCUSSION The study results showed that adolescents were receiving great support from family, friends and special others and their self-awareness levels were above average. As concluded by previous researchers, adolescents must get a great deal of benefit from social support in building and developing self-awareness (Kirshner, 1992; Pierre, 1994; Dekovic & Meeus, 1997; Hoffman et al, 1988; Ikiz & Cakar, 2010). Coinciding with past research, the findings revealed in this study also confirmed the role of social support in the performance of self-awareness skills. We found a significant positive relationship between adolescents’ self-awareness and perceived social support from family, peers, and special others. Results also showed that according to gender, male adolescents were experiencing significantly greater levels of social support relative to female ones and they also performed skills of Emotion Self- Awareness and Self-Confidence better than female ones. These findings implied that one who gets greater social support has higher levels of self-awareness. In fact, during adolescence, parents make up the source of support for personality merits and important decision making (Wall, Covell, & Macintyre, 1999); teachers play an important role in sanity, academic attitude, and academic success (Gurkan, 1993); but peers are the most sought after sources of help and support. The mutual sharing of personal, social, or moral ideas by peers supports the individual and his/her inner and social development (Turner, 1999). Thus, it is all the support that gives adolescents a tool to gradually have a positive and precise recognition about themselves. Despite the fact that during early and middle adolescence, the center of social world shifts from family to friends and romances, by showing that support levels from family had strongest association with self-awareness levels, the study findings affirmed that family plays the most important role in increasing self-awareness among adolescents. With love, support, caring and advice from family members, adolescents know how own feelings impact on performance, acknowledge own strengths and areas of weakness and present self in an assured, forceful, impressive and unhesitating manner. Studies done by the American Psychological Association have shown that adolescents with a less privileged upbringing have a more difficult time developing their identity. This study finding may also support the view-point that the environment in which an adolescent grows up also plays an important role in their identity development. The role of family in helping adolescents build a sound and positive self-image, therefore, should be highlighted. Especially, positive correlations between types of self–awareness and social support could also be observed, which indicated that adolescents who were receiving greater support from family, friends and special others had higher Self-Confidence. This THE CORRELATION OF PERCEIVED SOCIAL SUPPORT... 19 finding coincides with former research. As was suggested by Gecas (1972) and Wong et al. (2002), students have higher self-esteem and competence in a socially supportive environment. Improving the level of social support for students would encourage an increase in self-esteem and foster increased competence, likely leading to higher achievement. Social support could also be used to aid those who suffer from low self- esteem by encouraging elevation and attachment to others as suggested by Aberson (1999). Maner and Park (2009) also found that acceptance by one’s peers positively affects self-acceptance and self-confidence. With support from family, friends and special others, adolescents are confident to be themselves, to stand out in a group and to assume significant personal or professional risk to accomplish important goals. In order to confirm the positive relationship between self-awareness and perceived social support among adolescents, the correlational analyses were conducted separately for male and female groups. The findings revealed that in general, overall perceived social support was significantly related to overall self-awareness and Self-Confidence for both male and female groups. Thus, generally, it can be concluded that the positive correlation between self-awareness and perceived social support among adolescents remained remarkably consistent across gender. This result, once again, strongly affirm the role of social support in increasing self-awareness skills among adolescents. Beyond the general relationship, other specific relationships are noteworthy. By observing in more detail, we also found that for male adolescents, special others play such an important part in increasing Emotion Self-Awareness, Self-Assessment and Self -Confidence; whereas for female adolescents, the role of family in enhancing Emotion Self-Awareness and Self-Confidence was focused. It may be the case that many of these male adolescents are transitioning into adulthood, and they may be experiencing their first serious romantic relationship. Thus, they may become more entrenched with their significant other than they otherwise would (Smith & Renk, 2007). Girlfriends may be more likely to be an immediate influence in male adolescents’ daily lives relative to parents and, thus, be able to supply more immediate social support (Smith & Renk, 2007). In contrast, female adolescents still attach to family which offer more support when it is needed. Additionally, it is reasonable enough to infer that when adolescents are struggling with issues of self-awareness, females’ perceptions of social support from family should be more considered; whereas, for males, more attention should be paid to the role of special others. In conclusion, the present study revealed that support from social others is functional in enhancing self-awareness among adolescents. In order to optimize the role of social support, which in turn, effectively helps enhance the self-awareness among adolescents, adolescents themselves and social others should put forth an effort in this course. With regard to adolescents, they need to give more effort to improve interpersonal communication and social skills. They need to be trained to maintain harmonious relations with social others and enhance the quality of social relations. Additionally, beside support from family members or peers, it is essential for them to consider 20 NGUYỄN PHƯỚC CÁT TƯỜNG và cs. counselors or psychotherapists as special others who can provide them with professional support to heighten their self-awareness. With regard to the role of social others, families and teachers need to pay close attention to adolescents, encourage and motivate them to have appropriate and positive problem solving. 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Psychology and Pedagogy Department, Hue College of Education, Hue University Mobile phone: 0120 606 6034, Email: catnguyen1174@yahoo.com DINH THI HONG VAN, PhD. Lecturer of Psychology and Pedagogy Department, Hue College of Education, Hue University Mobile phone: 0169 770 5701, Email: dthvan2000@yahoo.com TRAN THI HOA Former student of Psychology and Pedagogy Department, Hue College of Education, Hue University. Mobile phone: 0169 765 1112, Email: tranthihoa_tlgd@yahoo.com