Personal social network and perceived life quality in teenagers

This study aims to analyse the personal social network and the perceived living quality of tee- nagers between 14 and 18 years old in a sample of 62 individuals (N=62) who attend regular clas- ses in a school in the centre of Portugal. The instruments applied were the “Evaluation Inventory of Personal Social Networks” (IARSP- R) and the World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL - Bref). In what concerns the personal social network the results indicate that there are differences bet- ween the two genders concerning the functional characteristics of the network, with girls showing higher support perceptions. Significant correlations, of opposite directions, between the network size and the frequency of contacts, as well as the size of the network and the perceived supports bet- ween structural and functional variables were found. There are also strong correlations among all supports. Relating to living quality there are significant differences between the genders in the physical domain (male gender with significant higher medium values) and in social relations domain (female gender with significant higher medium values). A significant statistically association between the social relations of living quality domain and all the supports of the personal social network were found