Effects of spousal control and support on older adults' recovery from knee surgery.

The authors investigated associations between spousal control (influence) and support on the recovery outcomes for 70 men and women (mean age = 70) undergoing an increasingly common surgical treatment for osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee. Spouses' positive (motivating) and negative (pressuring) control and spouses' emotional (understanding) and problematic (dismissing) support were examined as predictors of patients' adherence and improvement in well-being. Positive control was associated with better adherence, but only among patients whose spouses provided little problematic support. In contrast, negative control strategies tended to elicit increases in negative affect. Overall, our findings revealed that the effectiveness of spousal control depended largely on the quality of support provided by the spouse. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social exchanges and subjective well-being among older Chinese: Does age make a difference?

The authors examined the effects of social support and negative interactions on life satisfaction and depressed affect among older Chinese, and age differences in these associations. The sample consisted of 2,943 Chinese elders who were 60-94 years of age. Structural equation modeling results suggest that both social support and negative interactions have significant contributions to life satisfaction and depressed affect. Social support has stronger effects than negative interactions on life satisfaction; their effects on depressed affect are comparable. Further, depressed affect of old-old (70+ years) Chinese reacts more strongly to both social support and negative interactions than the young-old (60-69 years). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social support from family and friends as a buffer of low spousal support among mothers of critically ill children: A multilevel modeling approach.

Objective: To investigate whether social support from family and friends (family/friend support) attenuated ("buffered") adverse effects of having low spouse support (spousal support) among mothers of children undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Design: One hundred sixty-three married mothers who were their child's primary caregiver during treatment completed assessments during the child's hospitalization for HSCT and 3-, 6-, and 12-months post-HSCT. Measures: Family/friend support and spousal support were assessed during hospitalization. Maternal physical and mental health-related functioning (the main outcome measures) were assessed at all timepoints. Results: Multilevel modeling was used to analyze trajectories of maternal functioning. Findings indicated that mothers with low spousal support and low family/friend support demonstrated the worst functioning across all timepoints. Mothers with low spousal support and high family/friend support demonstrated significantly better functioning, supporting the hypothesized buffering effect. Their functioning compared to the functioning of mothers with high spousal support. Moreover, mothers with high family/friend support demonstrated trajectories of physical health-related functioning that were more stable than the trajectories of mothers with low family/friend support. Conclusion: These findings have clinical implications in addition to advancing knowledge of social support processes among couples coping with the shared stressor of a child's life-threatening illness and treatment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social Relationships and Health.

The author discusses 3 variables that assess different aspects of social relationships-social support, social integration, and negative interaction. The author argues that all 3 are associated with health outcomes, that these variables each influence health through different mechanisms, and that associations between these variables and health are not spurious findings attributable to our personalities. This argument suggests a broader view of how to intervene in social networks to improve health. This includes facilitating both social integration and social support by creating and nurturing both close (strong) and peripheral (weak) ties within natural social networks and reducing opportunities for negative social interaction. Finally, the author emphasizes the necessity to understand more about who benefits most and least from social-connectedness interventions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stress buffering effects of daily spousal support on women's daily emotional and physical experiences in the context of breast cancer concerns.

Objective: This study examined whether the relationship between daily spousal support and daily psychological and physical outcomes varied as a function of level of breast cancer related concern (stress buffering model). Design: Ninety-five women with early stage breast cancer completed daily reports of emotional and physical experiences and satisfaction with spousal support for 30 days. Women also rated problems dealing with three types of cancer specific concerns: emotional, physical, and social. Main outcome measures: Women's positive and negative affect and cancer related pain and fatigue. Results: Multilevel analyses supported a stress buffering effect for social concerns and a reverse stress buffering effect for emotional and physical concerns. Conclusion: Daily spousal support appears to be an important contributor to the daily emotional and physical wellbeing of women with breast cancer. Contrary to the tenets of the stress buffering model, these data suggest that the buffering effect of spousal support is attenuated when breast cancer related emotional and physical concerns reach high levels. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adolescent mothers' relationship with their children's biological fathers: Social support, social strain and relationship continuity.

Two-hundred and eighteen low-income, minority, adolescent mothers were interviewed during the perinatal period and 3 years later about their social networks, including their relationships with their children's fathers. Few adolescents were involved with fathers at both time points. Relationships with fathers were, in general, less supportive and less problematic over time. Moreover, although father support was not associated with adolescent mothers' psychological adjustment, father absence and father strain had negative associations with psychological adjustment. Maternal grandmother support buffered the negative effects of strain in the adolescents' relationships with biological fathers. Perceptions of less social support from maternal grandmothers and more social support from fathers during the perinatal period as well as less social support from a new male partner at 3 years postpartum predicted relationship continuity between adolescent mothers and fathers at 3 years postpartum. Implications for intervention and policy are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Associations among perceptions of social support, negative affect, and quality of sleep in caregivers and noncaregivers.

The authors used structural equation modeling to examine associations among perceptions of negative affect, social support, and quality of sleep in a sample of caregivers (n = 175) and noncaregiver control participants (n = 169). The authors hypothesized that caregiver status would be related to sleep quality directly and also indirectly by way of negative affect and social support. This hypothesis was partially supported in that caregiving was found to be indirectly related to sleep quality. However, after accounting for the indirect effects of negative affect and social support, the direct effect of caregiving on sleep quality was no longer statistically significant. The structural model accounted for approximately 43% of the variance in sleep quality. The present findings may be useful in the development of successful sleep interventions for caregivers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Support provision in marriage: The role of emotional similarity and empathic accuracy.

The goal of this investigation was to identify microlevel processes in the support provider that may foster or inhibit the provision of spousal support. Specifically, the authors focused on (a) how emotional similarity between the support provider and support seeker and (b) how empathic accuracy of the support provider relate to support provision in marriage. In a laboratory experiment, 30 couples were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 conditions (support provider: man vs. woman) of a factorial design. The couples provided questionnaire data and participated in a social support interaction designed to assess behaviors when offering and soliciting social support. A video-review task was used to assess emotional similarity and empathic accuracy during the support interaction. As expected, greater similarity between the support provider's and support seeker's emotional responses, as well as more accurate insights into the support-seeking spouse's thoughts and feelings were found to be predictive of more skilful support (i.e., higher levels of emotional and instrumental support and lower levels of negative types of support). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationship of Social Support and Social Burden to Repeated Breast Cancer Screening in the Women's Health Initiative.

Direct and interactive effects of social support, social burden (caregiving, negative life events, and social strain), education, and income on repeated use of breast cancer screening among a large (N=55,278), national sample of postmenopausal women participating in the Women's Health Initiative observational study were examined. Repeated screening decreased as emotional/informational support and positive social interactions decreased (ps     

Negative reactions to received spousal care: Predictors and consequences of miscarried support.

This study focused on the negative reactions of older women with osteoarthritis to the receipt of instrumental support (i.e., physical assistance) from their husbands and the effects of such negative reactions on the women's psychological well-being and self-care. Applying a person-environment fit model, the authors predicted that women's negative reactions to spousal support would be determined by the fit between this support and the personal centrality (importance) of being functionally independent. Consistent with this prediction, women who received high levels of support from the husband and for whom being functionally independent was not highly central reacted less negatively to this support. More negative reactions to spousal support were related to greater concurrent depressive symptomatology and fewer self-care behaviors. In addition, negative reactions were predictive of the women's increased depressive symptomatology and decreased life satisfaction. Findings illustrate a useful theoretical approach to the examination of support from family caregivers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Affect and behavioral involvement in spousal complaints and compliments.

The authors explored affect and behavioral involvement (gaze, talk time, and speaking turns) in spousal complaints and compliments, relating these constructs to current and longitudinal relational well-being. Participants were 65 married couples. Concurrent relational well-being was higher when partners negotiated (a) complaints with less negative affect, more gaze, less wife talk time, and more husband talk time and (b) compliments with less negative affect and more husband gaze. Husbands' satisfaction decreased over time when they experienced more negative affect while complimenting. Both spouses' satisfaction decreased over time when either partner, especially wives, took more speaking turns complaining. Partial support for the sentiment-override effect is discussed, but findings went beyond the effect to demonstrate contingent affect when responding to spousal behaviors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A longitudinal investigation of stress spillover in marriage: Does spousal support adequacy buffer the effects?

Stress spillover in marriage was examined within a stress-buffering conceptual framework in a multiwave, longitudinal sample of newlywed husbands and wives (N = 101 couples). Spousal support, chronic role strain, and marital satisfaction were assessed 4 times over 3 years and analyzed via actor-partner interdependence model and growth curve analytic techniques. Greater escalation in husbands' role strain over the first 3 years of marriage was associated with steeper declines in their marital satisfaction regardless of the adequacy of spousal support provided by their wives. In contrast, greater escalation in husbands' and wives' role strain was associated with significantly less marital decline for wives, and these links were bolstered when husbands provided wives with more adequate support. The present study is one of the first to explicate the underlying processes through which role strain and spousal support facilitate and mitigate the developmental course of marital satisfaction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attachment, Social Competencies, Social Support, and Psychological Distress.

In this survey study of 430 undergraduates, elements of the social competencies and interpersonal processes model (B. Mallinckrodt, 2000) were tested. Two social competencies were hypothesized to mediate the direct effects of 2 independent variables, attachment anxiety and avoidance, on 2 outcomes, psychological distress and perceived social support. Social self-efficacy was expected to be a significant mediator only for attachment anxiety. Emotional awareness, construed as low levels of alexithymia, was expected to be a significant mediator only for attachment avoidance. A bootstrap method was used to estimate the significance of indirect effects. Structural equation analyses suggested that, instead of specialized significant parings of one mediator with one independent variable, both social self-efficacy and emotional awareness served as significant mediators for both attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social exchange and well-being: Is giving better than receiving?

This research examined the effects of giving and receiving assistance on psychological well-being while taking into account other salient dimensions of social support including negative interaction and anticipated support. Structural equation models were evaluated by using data derived from a national probability sample of 1,103 individuals aged 65 yrs or older. Results indicate that the major dimensions of social support are significantly interrelated, not only directly but also indirectly. Giving and receiving support have both positive and negative consequences on well-being. With reference to the role of reciprocity, the evidence provides some support for the hypothesis of esteem enhancement instead of social exchange and equity theories. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of severe daily events on mood.

Examined the effects of naturally occurring, daily events on next-day mood. From a sample of 50 men (mean age 41.4 yrs) who had reported events and mood prospectively, 17 whose reports included a severe, negative event were selected. Same- and next-day associations were examined using both self-reports from the men and wives' reports about their husbands' mood; the wives' mean ages were 38.8 yrs. Instruments included the Assessment of Daily Experience and the Mood Adjective Check List. Same-day associations were observed, but there was no strong evidence of changes in next-day mood. Results offer no support for 2-day or longer effects of daily, negative events and highlight the need for prospective studies to address causal questions and cognitive mediational variables such as coping. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Maternal self-discrepancies, interrole conflict, and negative affect among married professional women with children.

This study applied self-discrepancy theory (E. T. Higgins, R. N. Bond, R. Klein, & T. Strauman, 1986) to the study of the maternal self-concept and interrole conflict for married professional women with children. The participants, 103 married professional women with young children, completed questionnaires. Each of the 4 self-discrepancy variables was a positive predictor of positive interrole conflict and, with one exception (actual–own:ought–own self-discrepancy), a negative predictor of coping effectiveness. Both structural role redefinition and superwoman coping strategies were positively related to coping effectiveness. Use of the structural role redefinition strategy was positively associated with work support, spousal support, and social support. Work support was negatively related to anxiety and depression, but no significant relations were found between spousal support and other variables. In regression models, self-discrepancy was related to both anxiety and depression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Relative Importance of Three Domains of Positive and Negative Social Exchanges: A Longitudinal Model With Comparable Measures.

Researchers have expressed considerable interest in the question of whether positive or negative social exchanges more strongly affect psychological health, but previous studies have been limited by using nonparallel measures of positive and negative social exchanges, by measuring negative affect only, and by relying largely on cross-sectional designs. The independent effects of positive and negative exchanges on both positive and negative affect were examined in a short-term longitudinal study of 277 older adults, using social exchange measures with parallel content and equivalent reliability and validity. In cross-sectional analyses, positive exchanges predicted positive affect, and negative exchanges predicted negative affect. In longitudinal analyses, however, negative exchanges predicted both positive and negative affect, whereas positive exchanges were unrelated to either outcome. The more potent and longer-lasting effects of negative exchanges have important implications for theory and interventions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social connections and suicidal thoughts and behavior.

Disrupted social connectedness is associated with suicidal thoughts and behaviors among individuals with substance use disorders (SUDs). The current study sought to further characterize this relationship by examining several indices of social connectedness—(a) living alone, (b) perceived social support, (c) interpersonal conflict, and (d) belongingness. Participants (n = 814) were recruited from 4 residential substance-use treatment programs and completed self-report measures of social connectedness as well as whether they had ever thought about or attempted suicide. Multivariate results indicated that interpersonal conflict and belongingness were significant predictors of a history of suicidal ideation, and that belongingness, perceived social support, and living alone were significant predictors of suicide attempt. These results indicate the most consistent support for the relationship between suicidality and thwarted belongingness, and also support the clinical utility of assessing whether individuals live alone. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

A prospective test of the negative affect model of substance abuse: Moderating effects of social support.

The authors tested whether dimensions of negative affect--specifically, trait levels of negative emotionality and state levels of depressive symptoms--increased risk for substance abuse onset and whether perceived social support moderated this relation using data from a 5-year prospective study of 496 school-recruited adolescent girls. Initial negative emotionality, but not depressive symptoms, and deficits in parental, but not peer, support predicted future substance abuse onset in a multivariate hazard model. Tests of the interaction between negative affect dimensions and social support suggested that support did not moderate the relation of negative affect to risk for substance abuse onset. Results provide prospective support for the etiological role in the onset of substance abuse of trait-linked negative affect and of parental support. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social network relationships as sources of maternal support and well-being.

Explored the social networks available to mothers of infants, focusing on the contribution of specific relationships to maternal well-being. 43 mothers (aged 21–39 yrs) of 13-mo-old infants were asked to position individuals who were close to them in a network diagram and to indicate which of those individuals provided support. The mother's relationship with her husband and with the infant's maternal grandparents, mother's well-being in terms of affect and life satisfaction, and infant temperamental difficulty and infant–mother attachment security were assessed. Results reveal that mothers reported an average of 13 persons in their networks, but support was provided primarily by the husband, followed by the infant's maternal grandmother (particularly when there was more than 1 child), and 1 or 2 other family members and friends. Maternal affect and life satisfaction were related to infant difficulty and to support from and satisfaction with the spouse. Negative maternal affect was related to anxious/resistant attachment. Results affirm the importance of spousal support for mothers of infants in intact families. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)