Community social support and attitude towards authority in adolescents: comparison of urban and rural contexts.

Abstract

Different ways in which the family and the school influence the attitude towards formal authority are known, but less the role of the community and the macro context. With a total sample of 3,706 secondary school students from urban and rural regions, ANOVA analyzes and multiple line regressions were carried out to identify the influences of the variables of family communication, community social support, and urban / rural context. Community social support was found to be a key variable in the formation of adolescents' attitude towards formal authority, its presence or absence being more significant in students from the rural context. Its theoretical and practical implications are discussed.