Social support and psychopathology: Interrelations with preexisting disorder, stress, and personality.

Contends that social support represents an integral component of theory on stress and psychopathology but that little attention has been directed toward understanding social support within the context of other predictors of disorder. Three alternative predictors are discussed: preexisting disorder, stress, and personality. It is suggested that research has been hindered by a lack of attention to the diverse associations between measures of social support and these related features of the individual's social environment and psychological functioning. This is due, in part, to (a) measurement redundancies, (b) method limitations, and (c) conceptual ambiguities involving support and these other constructs. Implications for related issues in the study of social support and psychopathology are presented. (56 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)