Social Support can assist many adolescence with problems in different areas but it can also be something such as a group of people from the community undertaking skill building activities. Sport activities can be classified as social support because a group of people can get together and participate in the sport they love. Emotionally, support groups can provide people with opportunities to express to others about how they feel about certain situation in their lives and they can get help/advice from other people.

Socially people can come together and communicate with one another and form new friendships and work on their social skills. Social groups are great ways to study up on certain subjects and learn about new language skills which are a need for life later on.

There are many different forms of Social support but the main four are:  Emotional Support  Esteem Support  Informational Support  Tangible Support

Emotional Support often involves physical comfort such as listening and emphasising and even hugs. With this type of support, a friend might give you a hug and will listen to your problems, and even let you know that they have felt the same way, too.

Esteem support is demonstrated in expressions of confidence and/or encouragement. Someone might point out the strengths you have and that you might be forgetting them or they might just let you know that they believe in you. Many life coaches and therapists can offer this type of Support to their client to show them that they believe in them and this often lead to the client believing in themselves more.

Those who are offering informational support usually do so in the form of advice-giving, or in gathering and sharing information. An example of this can be someone helping you brainstorm ideas instead of telling you what you should do.

This type of support includes taking on responsibilities for someone else deal with a problem or someone with a problem they are experiencing. Someone who is offering tangible support may bring you food when you are ill, or even help you actively deal with the issue at hand.

All these types of social do work for some people but not always. Certain people have different preferences for each type of social support needed. It is important to know that the wrong type of support can actually do more harm than good so it helps to know what type of social support is needed in each situation. Researchers have found that too much informational support can be worse than no support at all.

A priest outraged police and the public by encouraging the poor to shoplift. Instead of encouraging them to get a job or give them other advice, this priest ‘gave’ them his permission to the poor to shoplift. In his opinion, it It is far better than turning to prostitution, mugging or burglary.

The Child support agency helps parents take responsibility for the financial support of their children after separation. Centerlink and the Family Assistance Office can help parents with financial assistance, child care costs, and finding a job. Family Relationship Centres can help families access other services, provide information for families, and provide confidential assistance for separating families.

Social support is present in the classroom when a teacher supports the students by conveying high expectation for all students. The following are some of the expectations: that it is necessary to take risks and attempt challenging academic work, all members of the class can learn important knowledge and skills, and that there is a climate of mutual respect among all members of the class. If a disagreement develops, the teacher should help resolve it in a constructive way for all students concerned.

If there is a lack of social support in the classroom when a student or teacher’s behaviour changes abruptly; as in they produce comments or actions to discourage effort, or even take risks to express one’s views. An example of this might be a teacher commenting on a students work which changes the student’s answer, and that student might then try to prevent others from taking an assignment seriously.

BEAUMONT Andrew, MARSH Lee-Anne, PANETTA Agatha, Key concepts in VCE health and human development: Units 1 and 2, John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd, Milton, QLD, Australia, social - support /sr00033 stress.about.com/od/relationships/a/circleoffriends.htm side/priest-outrages-police-and-public-by- encouraging-poor-to-shoplift/story-e6frfhk