Alakoulun oppilaiden sosiaalisen tuen profiilien kehitys ja yhteys opiskeluhyvinvointiin ja koulumenestykseen

It is suggested that effective social support from teachers, peers and guardians is a key to promoting students’ study well-being at school. However, longitudinal research on the implications of distinctive combinations of social support for students’ school success and study wellbeing is scarce. We measured multiple dimensions of school-related social support (teacher, peer, and guardian support), study engagement, study burnout and grades in a sample of 2362 (NT1) Finnish primary school students in Grades 4, 5 and 6 (girls 50%). Latent transition analyses identified a 5-profile solution for each wave of data and revealed substantial inequality in perceived social support. Firstly, we found four profiles where social support from all three sources were experienced either on high, moderate, low, or very low level labelled as Fully supported (48%), Moderately supported (31%), Weakly supported (14%) and Isolated (3%). In addition to these, the profile, where a low level of social support from teacher was combined with moderate or high levels of social support from two other sources were found labelled as the Low teacher support (4%) profile. The profiles differed from each other in terms of study engagement, study burnout and grades and emphasized teachers’ special role in supporting students’ study wellbeing. Experiences of strong support were more stable over time. Moreover, the results showed that the experiences of school-related social support and study wellbeing are prone to change highlighting the importance of each source of support throughout the students’ school path.