Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Social support has repeatedly been linked to a host of diverse social, economic, and health outcomes, including mortality ( Berkman & Syme 1994 ), depression ( Wethington & Kessler 1986 ), a variety of physical health problems, including heart disease ( Kristenson et al. 1998 ), rheumatoid arthritis ( Krol et al. 1993 ), and educational attainment and success ( Hagan et al. 1996 ). Social support, as a field of study, rose to prominence in the early 1970s and ushered in a groundswell of articles and books dealing with this topic. The burgeoning literature resulted in a plethora of definitions of the term. “Social support” usually refers to a process of interaction or exchange between individuals and significant others. Researchers have examined different types of support (e.g., emotional, informational, instrumental) and different sources of support (e.g., family, friends, neighbors, church members), as well as functional aspects (e.g., emotional support, sense of acceptance or belonging) and structural aspects (e.g., size, density, frequency of contact). House et al. (1988) recommended that studies of social support include measures representing more than one of these components in order to better understand how they relate to each other and to different outcomes. This approach has been widely adopted; however, many papers still rely on single measures of one ... log in or subscribe to read full text