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When Social Support is Uncomfortable

The Communicative Accomplishment of Support as a Cultural Term in a Youth Intervention Program

Alliance for Children and Families

Marifran Mattson

Purdue University

This study expands the understanding of social support by addressing the communicative use of support in the context of a community program for troubled teens. A cultural description of the organization is drawn from observational field research involving staff, volunteers, and the youths. This description presents the ways in which the organization accomplishes and constructs support. The organization offers support in response to commitments made by the participants. In this context, support may be experienced as comfortable or uncomfortable; this tension is transcended by the cultural term coaching. The study identifies and explores two novel aspects of social support: support that is perceived as uncomfortable by the recipient and the use of support as a means for gaining compliance.

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