Student Well-being

Social Relationships & Well-being

Friendships, family, and social connections can be an important part of students’ well-being.

More than just having people around

While students’ lives are often lived in solitude (or at least with the perception of solitude), having others in their lives can be beneficial. Whether it is class, friends, teachers, family members, or others, they surround almost any student in the world. In the same way that having many people around does not automatically equate to feeling supported, someone with many classmates or online friends may feel isolated while the same student relying on a few close ones would not.

Research on the social relationships of Filipino students has begun to consider their impact on student life. A 2025 study that developed and validated a College Student Life Satisfaction Scale initially involved 406 Filipino college students, with 327 included in the final validation. The study identified peers, faculty, school environment, academic performance, and school-life balance as distinct dimensions of students’ experiences. The findings demonstrate how relationships within school can be part of how students understand their student life, rather than existing separately from it (“Development of the college student life satisfaction scale,” 2025).

Family as part of student life

Most students’ lives do not exist in isolation from home. Many students rely on family members to provide them with financial backing, encouragement, transportation, a place to study, or simply someone to talk to after a difficult day.

Family relationships can also become complicated if expectations are placed upon him/her, particularly regarding his/her academics. Parents or relatives may encourage a student to perform well but those expectations can become another form of pressure. Similarly to friends, the same relationship can provide support in one situation while causing stress in another.

A 2023 study of 187 young adult senior high school students in Metro Manila examined perceived social support alongside depression, anxiety, and stress (Serrano et al., 2023). The researchers found that higher perceived family support was negatively associated with participants’ depression, anxiety, and stress scores (although cross-sectional designs cannot establish causality). This highlights the difference between relationships that are close but negative, and ones that are beneficial in the long term.

“Social support should be strengthened among senior high school students to improve their mental well-being.”

Serrano et al. (2023)

Friends and classmates

Friends, too, can provide an alternative source of support. Students often share experiences with classmates that family members may not understand, whether it is struggling to understand a difficult subject, preparing for an examination, working together, or adjusting to a new school environment.

Friendships can also provide students with a way to step away from their responsibilities. Whether it is just a conversation over a break, eating together after class, or simply spending time with people who share similar interests, students can feel assured that their identity does not only exist in their school grades.

A 2025 study of Grade 11 students in a public high school in Cebu City found relatively high reported satisfaction in both its family and friends domains. Examining life satisfaction across several areas, including family, friends, neighborhood, school, and self, the study found that family and friends were among the more highly rated domains in its sample (Estipona & Delos Santos, 2025). Since the study was conducted among students from just one public school, however, its findings should not be taken as universally representative of Filipino students.

Friendships can also have their own difficulties. Competition, exclusion, misunderstandings, bullying, and conflicts can turn social relationships into another source of stress. Simply being surrounded by people is not always enough to guarantee that someone feels connected.

Belonging at school

A student’s relationship with school can also be shaped by whether they feel they belong there. Belonging can be developed both through friendships and supportive interactions with teachers or activities, while repeatedly feeling excluded or disconnected can also make school harder to navigate.

Relationships with teachers are also a part of this picture. Although teachers are not always expected to act as mental-health professionals, their interactions with students can also affect how supported they feel within their educational environment. The 2025 Filipino college-student life-satisfaction research included faculty and school environment as separate dimensions alongside peers, suggesting that students’ well-being is also influenced by more than just relationships among classmates (“Development of the college student life satisfaction scale,” 2025).

Although every positive interaction with a teacher does not necessarily guarantee improved mental health or a difficult one will necessarily lead to mental-health problems, students do experience school through relationships as well as through their academic requirements.

“The social connection between faculty and students also serves as a critical source of learning satisfaction.”

Masagca (2025), Development of the College Student Life Satisfaction Scale

Connection can exist online too

For students who spend much of their social life online, relationships are not limited only to people they physically see. Online spaces can help students to maintain friendships, find communities with shared interests or communicate with people who may be difficult to find elsewhere. However, social media and online communities can also introduce the pressure of comparison, conflict, harassment, or requiring constant availability.

A study among 247 Filipino university students examined Internet use, online social support, mental well-being, and psychological distress. The researchers found that online social support mediated some of the favorable relationship between Internet use and mental-health outcomes while describing it as having a more complicated, double-edged relationship with well-being (“The double-edged impact of Internet use,” 2023). Ultimately, it is the actions and interactions which can be made online that can have an effect on students.

“Findings highlight the importance of online social support as a pathway to harness the positive effects of Internet on mental health.”

Abad Santos et al. (2023), The double-edged impact of Internet use on mental health outcomes among Filipino university students

When relationships become another source of pressure

Social connection is not always comfort. Students may experience arguments with friends, family conflict, relationship problems, exclusion, bullying, or the pressure to fit into a particular group. Academic and social pressures can also overlap; a student may compare grades with friends, feel responsible for carrying a group project, or worry about disappointing those who expect them to succeed. Someone dealing with family responsibilities may also have less time to participate in social activities or maintain friendships.

These experiences can be especially difficult since there is not an obvious boundary between school and social life, with a conflict with a classmate that will follow them into the classroom or where a problem at home is also difficult to resolve. This is one reason why student well-being cannot be entirely understood through their academic performance. The relationships surrounding a student are part of the environment in which their academic life exists.

Support does not mean solving everything

The role of social relationships should not be exaggerated. Supporting another student does not necessarily mean that one has the right answer to all problems. Sometimes, it can be as simple as listening, checking in, helping with a practical task, or giving someone space to talk. There are also times when a student needs help beyond what a friend or family member can provide, and guidance counselors, school personnel, mental-health professionals, and other appropriate services may become important sources of support when difficulties get more serious.

Having supportive people around cannot prevent every mental-health difficulty, and students should not be made to feel as though their problems can only be solved by becoming more socially connected.

At the same time, though, having someone to turn to can also make difficult periods less isolating. The 2023 Metro Manila study specifically advocated for strengthening social support among senior high school students as a part of school mental-health programs, while also highlighting the need for more research into Filipino students’ mental health (Serrano et al., 2023).

Making space for connection

Most often, student well-being is discussed around individual habits - studying effectively, getting enough rest, or managing a workload. Those things matter, but students are also social beings. A healthy student life can include time spent with friends, conversations with family, positive relationships with teachers, participation in communities and spaces where students can simply be themselves without being evaluated for their academic performance.

Not all relationships will be supportive, and not all students will have the same opportunity to build a social network. Some may commute long distances, work while studying, have family responsibilities, or attend environments where it is hard to form connections. These circumstances are worth taking into account, rather than assuming that everyone has equal opportunity to have supportive relationships.

Ultimately, social relationships are one part of a much larger picture of student well-being. Friends, family, classmates, teachers, and online communities can all influence how students experience school and the rest of their lives, but they do not determine it on their own. School may teach students subjects and skills, but the people around them can shape how they experience the process of learning. Sometimes, simply feeling that there is someone to talk to, return to, or simply spend time with can be just as important as what happens inside the classroom.