Abstract

GONZALEZ ARRATIA LOPEZ FUENTES, Norma Ivonne; TORRES MUNOZ, Martha Adelina  and  MORELATO, Gabriela Susana. Social Support, Self-esteem and Subjective Wellbeing in Schoolchildren. The Case of Mexico and Argentina. Acta de investigación psicol [online]. 2020, vol.10, n.2, pp.65-79.  Epub Mar 05, 2021. ISSN 2007-4719.  https://doi.org/10.22201/fpsi.20074719e.2020.2.347.

Self-esteem, social support and subjective well-being are relevant variables in Positive Psychology because they are closely related to the optimal functioning of individuals. However, there is still little research that analyzes these variables together and there are no references to this in the case of children in a situation of psychosocial vulnerability. So the objective is to analyze if self-esteem mediates the relationship between social support and subjective well-being. With a cross-sectional design, two studies were carried out, the first of them, evaluates the relationship of these variables in a sample of Mexican children. The second one explores if this association occurs in the same direction in the case of Argentine children. The total sample consists of 207 schoolchildren of which 96 are boys and 111 are girls, with an age range from 11 to 15 years (M = 11.93, SD = .97) all of them from public schools of basic education. The participants of group 1 are 100 Mexican children of both sexes equally represented, and in the group 2, 107 children participate (46 boys and 61 girls) residing in the city of Mendoza, Argentina. Applying the scales of: self-esteem, family social support, positive-negative affectivity, satisfaction with life and a sociodemographic questionnaire. Descriptive analysis, correlation analysis, simple linear regression analysis and a path model were tested. The association between the variables was significant except the negative affectivity, as well as the regression models. The proposed initial model was partially verified, both in group 1 and group 2. The findings suggest to continue verifying the model, as well as considering the inclusion of contextual variables such as the family environment, and academic ones that explain the factors that contribute to the well-being of children.

Keywords : Social Support; Self-esteem; Subjective Wellbeing; Children; Vulnerability.