The relationship between perceived social support, loneliness and the coping stress levels of the students attending the 8 th class in elementary schools

In this research the relationship between perceived social support, loneliness and the coping stress levels of the students attending the 8th class in elementary schools were identified. In addition, the students? coping stress, loneliness and perceived social support levels were identified depending on the variables such as gender, the parent?s being together or divorced, the parent?s being alive or not, the parent?s being step or not, the parent?s working or not, education level of parents, economic level of the family, number of brothers and sisters, academic success of the students and perceived parent behaviour. Survey method was used in this research. The group of the research was consisted of 230 students at the 8 grade of Altınordu Layıka Akbilek Primary School that depend on Ministry of Education in Ankara, during 2005-2006 academic year. Four instruments were used to collect data. These are (1) ?Personal Information Form? developed by the researcher, (2) ?Ergenlerde Stresle Basa Çıkma Envanteri? developed by Özbay, Ercan ve Tertemiz (2005) (3) ?UCLA Loneliness Scale? developed by Russell, Peplau and Fergusan (1978) and later adapted by Russell, Peplau and Cutrona (1980) (4) ?Perceived Social Support Scale? developed by the Yıldırım (1997). Independent Sample of t Test, One Way Anova (F Test), Pearson Corelation Test of statistical techniques were used in the research according to the type of the variables and the purpose of the research. Scheffe Test was also used after F test, when significant differences were found. Significance level was accepted as 0.05. The findings of the research are as follows; It was found out that the level of loneliness, the level of perceived social support and the level of coping stress of the students is insignificant depending on the gender. Depending on the mother?s working or not, the level of coping stress of the students is significant. It was found out that the level of coping stress of the students whose mother works is higher than that of students whose mother doesn?t work. Nevertheless depending on the mother?s working or not, the level of loneliness and the level of social support of the students is insignificant. Depending on the father?s working or not, the level of loneliness, the level of social support and the level of coping stress of the students is insignificant. Depending on the economic level of the family, the level of loneliness, the level of social support from the family and the level of coping stress of the students is significant. It was found out that the level of loneliness of the students whose family has low economic level is higher and the level of social support from the family and the level of coping stress is lower than that of the students whose family has high economic level. Nevertheless depending on the economic level of the family, the social support from the friends and the teachers is insignificant. Depending on the numbers of brothers and sisters, the level of loneliness is significant. It was found that the loneliness level of the students who has got three, four and five is higher than that of the students who has got one or no brother and sister. Nevertheless depending on the numbers of brothers and sisters, the level of social support and the level of coping stress is insignificant. Depending on the level of academic success of students; the level of loneliness, the level of social support from family and friend is significant. It was found out that the level of loneliness of the students whose academic success is low is higher and the level of social support from family and teacher is lower than that of the students whose academic success is high. Nevertheless depending on the level of academic success of students, the level of social support from teacher and the level of coping stress is insignificant.