TUESDAY, July 16, 2024 (HealthDay News) — More than half of teenagers report always or usually receiving the social and emotional support needed, according to a study published online July 16 in the National Health Statistics Reports, a publication from the National Center for Health Statistics.

Benjamin Zablotsky, Ph.D., from the National Center for Health Statistics in Hyattsville, Maryland, and colleagues estimated the prevalence of self-reported social and emotional support among teenagers ages 12 to 17 years and describe differences in health and well-being outcomes by level of support received using data from the National Health Interview Survey and National Health Interview Survey-Teen.

The researchers found that 58.5 percent of teenagers reported always or usually receiving the social and emotional support they needed in 2021 to 2022. Differences were seen by demographic characteristics, including sex, race and Hispanic origin, sexual or gender minority status, parental education, and family income. The likelihood of reporting poor or fair health, anxiety or depression symptoms, very low life satisfaction, and poor sleep quality was lower for teenagers who always or usually received support. Compared with teenagers’ self-reports, parents consistently reported higher perceived levels of teenagers’ social and emotional support.

“Parents were consistently more likely to report higher levels of their teenagers’ level of social and emotional support compared with their teenagers,” the authors write. “Collecting the teenager’s perspective in addition to parent-reported data for social and emotional support has advantages for understanding why these differences may occur.”

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