Social supports among college students and measures of alcohol use, perceived stress, satisfaction with life, emotional intelligence, and coping

Abstract

In this study I examined three domains of social supports among college students (close friends, casual friends and safe adults to turn to) in relation to indices of wellbeing and coping. Measures of positive wellbeing were most strongly associated with the safe adults domain of social support followed by the close friends domain of social support. Casual friends were associated only with measures of problem alcohol consumption but not with indices of wellbeing. Students with five or more safe adults to turn to as compared to four or fewer reported significantly lower perceived stress, greater satisfaction with life, higher emotional intelligence, better academic performance and lower problem drinking scores. The domain of safe adults was associated with the largest array of wellbeing indices of all three social support domains. Future research should examine additional measures of wellbeing that may be associated with distinct domains of support.