The relation between characteristics of social networks of adolescents and the level of their psychosomatic health

This article describes the results of empirical studies of the main characteristics of social network and social support in their interrelation with affective manifestations and somatization of modern adolescents. The emphasis is made on the following characteristics of social network - size, index of density, number of trusted relationships and social supports, as well as communication sphere. The studied types of social support are the emotional and instrumental social support and social integration of adolescents. All aspects of social support have been studied empirically by using reliable and valid methods of research. The subjects are 169 adolescents, pupils of secondary schools and vocational colleges of Kaliningrad and Kaliningrad region. The contribution describes the data on the role of interpersonal risk factors in psychosomatic health of adolescents which was gathered in this empirical study. It is shown that social networks of adolescents with psychosomatic health disorders have almost no differences from social networks of relatively healthy adolescents, except for the index “social network size”.

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