Who Provides Support? Investigating Social Support Types in High School Students’ Personal Networks

The transition from high school to university or the labor market is a pivotal period for students, often accompanied by significant challenges. Social interactions among peers within school settings play a crucial role during this phase, as schools provide environments where students establish meaningful relationships. Empirical studies have high-lighted the importance of social support from both informal and formal groups in influencing students’ decisions during educational transitions. The present contribution examines factors affecting the probability of receiving specific types of support by adopting a personal network per-spective. Egocentric data were collected from high school students using a multiple name generator, which included questions related to infor-mational, appraisal, and emotional support. A name interpreter gath-ered information about alters’ characteristics, ego-alter relationships, and relationships between alters (alter-by-alter ties). To identify the main determinants of social support, we performed a multilevel logis-tic regression analysis, accounting for the hierarchical structure inherent ego network data.