Social and affective support network for public school students experiencing learning problems

Introduction Adolescence presents itself as a phase of life marked by rapid changes produced by different social contexts and in many cases, it can be configured in a stressful situation. The development of a psychosocial support network is of fundamental importance for adolescents to cope with the pressures of life in challenging situations. Many students, especially living in poor communities, face school problems especially because the curriculum fails to provide relevant knowledge to students in a way it can be meaningful and easier to be taught by teachers and learned by students. When students fail at school usually, they tend to blame themselves and as a result they may develop anxiety, social isolation and even depression. Objectives Through the Bioecological Theory of Human Development, we sought to understand the psychosocial support networks of adolescents, whether or not experiencing school problems, considering this to be a challenging event. Methods In this research it was used the Five Fields Map, an instrument that evaluated the psychosocial support network for adolescents. The students with and without school problems filled the map in the beginning of the year and then at the end of the same year while facing a school problem as repeating the whole year because of insufficient grades. Results The number of relationships between students facing and not facing school problems was not different, however, failing students had fewer relationships in the school-church Mesosystem, fewer relationships in the second and third levels in the first and second moments of data collection, and more relationships in level 5 in the second moment. School Home Church Public spaces Rel. Factor Rel. Factor Rel. Factor Rel. Factor Control Beginning 56 5,2 36 4,97 33 6,3 26 6,77 Control End 42 5,26 33 4,94 38 6,6 20 6,7 Total 98 5,23 69 4,97 71 6,45 46 6,74 School problem Beginning 57 5,52 39 5,36 10 6,3 15 5,26 School Problem End 45 5,4 31 5,67 10 6,3 10 5,6 Total 102 5,47 70 5,51 20 6,3 25 5,53 TOTAL 200 5,3 139 5,23 91 6,37 71 6,06 Conclusions Both group of students showed great strength of proximity in their psychosocial support networks, indicating that it provided sufficient support so that the outcome of the failure experience was positive. Disclosure of Interest None Declared