ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the degree to which support from peers or adults outside the nuclear family serves to moderate the effect of economic pressure and parenting practices upon the adjustment of adolescents. Research on the protective function of children's external social support systems is important for two reasons: First, situations that put children at risk for negative developmental outcomes also undermine the personal characteristics of the child and the child's family that are associated with effective coping. Economic hardship tends to reduce perceptions of self-efficacy and to disrupt the parent-child relationship. Second, it is probably easier for human service organizations and school personnel to increase a child's level of external social support than to modify either his or her personal characteristics or family environment. For girls, support from adults outside the nuclear family also moderated the direct effect of economic pressure. Adult support did not serve this function for boys.
