A social support is one of the factors related to how an individual feels and functions in their life. Especially in adolescence, the support of friends and peers is crucial, as supportive friendships provide young people with a sense of acceptance and belonging and generally contribute to better mental well-being. We were interested in whether this relationship is also present among second-year secondary school students participating in the second wave of the CZEPS survey. The figure below contains the responses of 20,404 students and shows that more than three-fifths (61%) of students with a high level of well-being feel strong support from their friends, while in the case of students with an average level of well-being, this proportion is 20 percentage points lower, at 41%, and in the case of those with a low level of well-being, only a quarter (25%) of students feel strong friends support. Conversely, more than a tenth (11%) of students with low level of well-being feel a weak support from their friends, compared to only 3% of students with an average or high levels of well-being. The figure also shows that four out of ten adolescents surveyed with low level of well-being feel a "weak" or "medium weak" level of support from their friends, while in the case of students with high level of well-being, this figure is only 11%. Based on these results, it can be concluded that the level of well-being and the level of friends support are positively correlated. The question of whether the level of friends support influences the level of well-being or vice versa will be subject of further analysis.
