Examining teachers' perceptions of children's support systems

Teachers of 94 youth evaluated the functionality of their students' support systems by completing the Personal History Inventory for Children (Parish & Wigle, 1985). An analysis of variance revealed significant main effects due to students' family structure, gender, and birth order. Specifically, youth from divorced nonremarried and divorced remarried families experienced more dysfunctional support systems than youth from intact families. Further, boys were found to be at more risk than girls, and later borns were found to experience more support system failure than firstborns.