Children's social networks and well-being

Abstract

Children's physical, emotional, and social well-being depends to a great extent on the networks of relatives and friends in their social worlds. Children's connections with parents, siblings, grandparents, other kin, peers, and non-kin adults provide critical resources such as information, material assistance, affection, physical comforting, empathic listening, assistance in problem solving, and reassurance of worth. At times, network relationships also are responsible for painful experiences of rejection, disappointment, and loss. Members of the child's social network must be understood as embedded within their own ramifying social networks, so that the resources available to the child also depend on these larger networks. Networks are “gendered” in many ways, with females (both adults and children) providing more support to children than do males and with girls seeking and receiving more support from network members than do boys. Girls tend to participate in dyadic relationships while boys prefer interaction in groups. Although the composition and resources of the network are important to all children, network connections can have the strongest impact on those in particularly difficult circumstances, such as orphaned children and those living in poverty. Someof the network members most significant for children are the network members on whom their parents or other primary caretakers rely. These individuals are important both because of what they provide directly to children and also because of the ways in which their support encourages and sustains parents, thus improving the quality of care parents provide.