Manipulating the type and source of social support: An experimental investigation.

Investigated whether various types of support (emotional, instrumental, informational, and appraisal) are distinguishable from each other and whether the type and/or source of support affects stress–outcome relationships in 2 studies with 232 undergraduates. It was found that the type of support, but not its source, was perceived by Ss as being important for predicting outcome and that Ss in the informational condition predicted the most positive outcome. However, since Ss perceived that informational support was also emotional, it is concluded that the perceived combination of informational and emotional support was the most effective in buffering a negative outcome of stress. Implications for the construct validity of social support are discussed. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The dimensionality of social victimization: A preliminary investigation.

The purpose of the current study was to examine the dimensionality of social victimization and to assess the relation between social victimization and classmate social support in a sample of 260 students. Confirmatory factor analyses yielded four dimensions of peer victimization: overt, verbal social, and nonverbal social victimization and peer exclusion, providing preliminary evidence that social victimization is multidimensional. Boys reported experiencing greater levels of overt victimization than girls and girls were more likely to endorse experiencing peer exclusion. No gender differences were found with respect to children's experience of verbal and nonverbal forms of social victimization. Results suggest that middle school students were more likely to be the target of verbal social victimization than were elementary school students. Verbal social and nonverbal social victimization as well as peer exclusion demonstrated criterion-related validity. Implications for assessment and intervention for social victimization and suggestions for future research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Household crowding and social support: A quasiexperimental analysis.

People often cope with crowded living conditions by socially withdrawing from their housemates. This coping strategy may overgeneralize, influencing social interactions with others outside the home. In a stressful laboratory situation, Ss from crowded homes, in comparison with uncrowded counterparts, are less likely to seek support from a confederate and rate the confederate as less supportive. Moreover, Ss from crowded homes are less likely to offer support to a confederate in need. These differences in social interaction behaviors appear to be attributable to crowded residents' social withdrawal. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Received and perceived social support in times of stress: A test of the social support deterioration deterrence model.

The authors evaluated the impact of receiving social support on subsequent levels of perceived social support and psychological distress in 2 independent samples of victims of severe natural disasters: Hurricane Hugo (n?=?498) and Hurricane Andrew (n?=?404). A social support deterioration deterrence model was proposed that stipulated that postdisaster mobilization of received support counteracts the deterioration in expectations of support often experienced by victims of major life events. LISREL analyses of data collected 12 and 24 months after Hugo and 6 and 28 months after Andrew provided strong evidence for the hypothesized model: Perceived support mediated the long-term effects on distress of both scope of disaster exposure and postdisaster received support. Theoretical and application issues of social support are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Behavioral science and social conscience.

Comments on K. B. Clark's (see record 1972-20755-001) contention that people seem unable to exercise power in such a way as to affirm positive human values because of the fragile vulnerability of the ego. The difficulty in advancing behavioral science and applying it to the solution of human problems is discussed in terms of moral values and issues of control. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Measuring general social support in alcoholic patients: Short forms for perceived social support.

Previous studies identify a positive association between social support and favorable posttreatment functioning. The next step for this line of inquiry is to identify the mechanisms through which social relationships affect alcohol treatment outcome by discrimination of the types and sources of social support. This article presents versions of the Perceived Social Support instrument (M. Procidano & K. Heller, 1983), which measures support from both family and friends. The item sets are reduced from 20 to 7 and ask identical questions from these two support sources. The internal consistency for the Family scale (α?=?.84) and for the Friends scale (α?=?.81) is acceptable. Test-retest reliability is also good for both the Family (r?=?.94) and the Friends (r?=?.88) scales. Correlations with social functioning and alcohol involvement are similar between the short scales and the original 20 items. Normative levels of family and friends support by gender are presented. These scales expand the ability to include a multifaceted social support construct in comprehensive assessments of alcohol treatment populations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Behavioral treatment of childhood social phobia.

Sixty-seven children (ages 8 and 12) with social phobia were randomized to either a behavioral treatment program designed to enhance social skills and decrease social anxiety (Social Effectiveness Therapy for Children, SET-C) or an active, but nonspecific intervention (Testbusters). Children treated with SET-C were significantly more improved across multiple dimensions, including enhanced social skill, reduced social fear and anxiety, decreased associated psychopathology, and increased social interaction. Furthermore, 67% of the SET-C group participants did not meet diagnostic criteria for social phobia at posttreatment compared with 5% of those in the Testbusters group. Treatment gains were maintained at 6-month follow-up. The results are discussed in terms of treatment of preadolescent children with social phobia and the durability of treatment effects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Satisfaction with social support and depressive symptoms: A panel analysis.

The literature suggests that persons who are dissatisfied with the amount of social support that has been provided to them may subsequently suffer from psychological disorder. At the same time, there is evidence that individuals who initially suffer from emotional disorder may consequently be less satisfied with their social support systems than may persons who enjoy better mental health. The purpose of this study was to test these competing hypotheses with panel data from a community survey of older adults. The findings indicate that changes in satisfaction with support tend to precede changes in depressive symptoms. A number of issues in the analysis of longitudinal data are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A developmental investigation of social aggression among children.

Social aggression consists of actions directed at damaging another's self-esteem, social status, or both, and includes behaviors such as facial expressions of disdain, cruel gossiping, and the manipulation of friendship patterns. In Study 1, 4th, 7th, and 10th graders completed the Social Behavior Questionnaire; only boys viewed physical aggression as more hurtful than social aggression, and girls rated social aggression as more hurtful than did boys. In the 1st phase of Study 2, girls participated in a laboratory task in which elements of social aggression were elicited and reliably coded. In the 2nd phase of Study 2, another sample of participants (elementary, middle, and high school boys and girls) viewed samples of socially aggressive behaviors from these sessions. Girls rated the aggressor as more angry than boys, and middle school and high school participants viewed the socially aggressive behaviors as indicating more dislike than elementary school children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Pre-treatment social support and effective psychotherapeutic process: A panel study.

Examined the relationship between social support provided prior to treatment by 57 individual psychotherapy patients' significant others and 3 process components at 3 points in treatment: the 1st session, the 5th session, and the 16th session. Strong pre-treatment network supports generally were found to have a significant positive association with the therapeutic bond, patient self relatedness, and therapeutic realizations in the initial phase of treatment, but were progressively less likely to be associated with these therapeutic processes over time. Several distinct exceptions to this pattern, however, suggest that the relationship between network support(s) and therapeutic process is not simple. That is, the strength as well as the timing of the relationship between support and process were found to vary depending upon the particular type of support provided and its source. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Experimentally provided social support.

Investigated the interactive effects of a supportive intervention in conjunction with performance on a problem-solving task (anagrams). 80 undergraduates differing in assessed social support were given experimentally provided support or were in a control condition. For measures of both performance and cognitive interference, significant interactions were obtained between assessed and experimentally provided social support. Findings are consistent with the idea that a low level of social support in a person's life is a vulnerability factor. However, they also suggest that it is possible to devise supportive interventions that facilitate task-relevant thinking and performance for those low in social support. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Culture and social support.

Social support is one of the most effective means by which people can cope with stressful events. Yet little research has examined whether there are cultural differences in how people utilize their social support networks. A review of studies on culture and social support presents evidence that Asians and Asian Americans are more reluctant to explicitly ask for support from close others than are European Americans because they are more concerned about the potentially negative relational consequences of such behaviors. Asians and Asian Americans are more likely to use and benefit from forms of support that do not involve explicit disclosure of personal stressful events and feelings of distress. Discussion centers on the potential implications of these findings for intercultural interactions and for the use of mental health services by Asians and Asian Americans. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Convoys of social support: An intergenerational analysis.

Within the Convoy Model, social networks are viewed as dynamic hierarchic structures surrounding the individual throughout life. As a step toward empirical definition of convoy structure and function across the life span, a bicultural sample (N?=?159) of young adult women, their mothers, and their grandmothers were queried. Comparable results were obtained across generations and cultures with regard to network size, the amount of support provided by the network, and the nomination of close family members as primary sources of support. However, there was a marked shift across generations in the balance of familial vs friendship relations. Younger persons included fewer family members and more friends in their networks, and they received more support from friends. These cross-sectional results are consistent with the Convoy Model and suggest that longitudinal research is warranted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Correlates of social support receipt.

Psychological correlates of social support receipt were examined in an investigation of stress and coping among 150 middle-aged community residents. Subjects were interviewed monthly for 6 months, each time concerning a specific stressful situation in the previous month. Social support received and methods of coping were assessed each time, as well as other variables. Factors hypothesized to be associated with support receipt were person predispositions, appraisal patterns with regard to specific stressful encounters, and coping strategies used. Each was most strongly associated with a particular type of social support. Person predispositions related most strongly to emotional support received, appraisal factors related most strongly to aid, and coping strategies related most to informational support received. Furthermore, of the three sets of variables, the individual's ways of coping appeared to be most strongly associated with all types of social support received. Two implications are explored. First, we suggest that the three types of social support studied represent different constructs with different antecedents and consequences. Second, we argue that coping behavior provides interpersonal cues regarding what is wanted or needed in a stressful situation and that the members of the social environment respond accordingly. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Validity of social skills measures for assessing social competence in low-status children: A multivariate investigation.

Investigated the validity of the 3 types of measures that are frequently used to measure social competence in children. Data were collected on 40 3rd- and 4th-grade low-sociometric-status Ss using 2 sociometric rating scales, 3 peer nomination measures, and 4 categories of behavioral observations. All of the measures were collected 3 times. Findings support previous claims that rating-scale measures and nomination measures assess different dimensions of sociometric status. Behavioral measures emerged as a separate factor suggesting that these measures assess a dimension of social competence that is independent from popularity or peer acceptance. (40 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Going beyond social support: The role of social relationships in adaptation.

Discusses new directions for explicating relations among stress, support, and adaptational outcomes. Attention is drawn to the distinctiveness of marriage as a source of stress and support in adult life. In addition, the literature on marital and family therapy points to the potentially deleterious effects of overinvolvement in close relationships. It is suggested that if research and theory on social support are to become relevant to clinical intervention, the current emphasis on the benefits of perceived social support needs to be balanced by consideration of the costs constraints of participating in social relationships and by a concern for how such perceptions arise. (83 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A multimethod investigation of the Behavioral Activation System in bipolar disorder.

Dysregulation in behavioral activation system (BAS) activity has been implicated in the pathogenesis of bipolar disorder (BPD). To characterize BAS activity and related facets in this disorder, the authors compared 59 participants with BPD to 44 controls on multiple measures of BAS activity, including a standardized behavioral task, self-reports, and electroencephalographic indexes of regional cortical activity. Levels of putative BAS activity differed depending on assessment strategy. When a behavioral task indexing reward sensitivity was used, euthymic BPD patients showed evidence of higher BAS activity than either control participants or patients who were in a mood episode. Following a mood induction procedure designed to elicit BAS activity, currently episodic patients showed relatively greater left anterior cortical activity than either euthymic or control participants. Implications of the findings for future research on BPD vulnerability are described. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Influence of social support on success of therapeutic interventions: A meta-analytic review.

Researchers view social support as an important extratherapeutic factor in the field of psychotherapeutic research. In an effort to verify the accuracy of this view, and to determine the degree to which social support influences the outcome of psychotherapeutic interventions, the authors conducted an exhaustive review of studies published until 2007. This search yielded 27 studies, including 29 independent samples that composed a meta-analysis. The results demonstrated a small mean correlation of r = .13 between social support and psychotherapy outcome on an almost homogeneous data set. Different operationalizations of social support and forms of interventions did not result in different effect sizes on a statistically significant level. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Veridicality of social support: A comparison of principal and network members' responses.

Examined (1) the extent to which there is agreement between an individual and his/her social network member in their report of whether social support is provided or received (i.e., veridicality); (2) the relation between veridicality and feelings of closeness; and (3) the effect of veridicality on well-being. Ss were part of a larger national study and included 218 principal Ss (aged 70–95 yrs) and 497 network members (aged 18–92 yrs). Veridicality was assessed by matching the congruence of perception between the principal and network Ss. Overall well-being was measured through an assessment of life satisfaction. Specific veridicality ranged from 49 to 60%; overall veridicality reached a high of 79%. When examined by relationship, both specific and overall veridicality was highest between spouses, somewhat high among other family members, and lowest among friends. Feelings of closeness were significantly related to veridicality; principal Ss who reported feeling close to their network members had greater veridicality. Veridicality was not significantly related to life satisfaction, happiness, or negative affect. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)