Support bridge team for a few years (5)
I believe the answer is:
teens
'a few years' is the definition.
'support bridge team' is the wordplay.
'support' becomes 'tee' (tee is a kind of support**).
'bridge team' becomes 'ns' (north and south are a team in bridge).
'tee'+'ns'='TEENS'
'for' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for teens that I've seen before include "13-19 age group" , "Adolescence" , "children" , "Between 12 and 20" , "seven-year period" .)