Daily supportive equity in close relationships

Receiving support in committed relationships has frequently been associated with negative psychological outcomes in the recipient, such as increased distress. The authors hypothesized that these negative effects could be offset by support recipients' reciprocation of support, that is, by creating a sense of supportive equity. To investigate this hypothesis, the authors obtained daily reports of mood and of received and given emotional support from both partners in 85 couples throughout a 4-week period. Reciprocity in support transactions was associated with higher levels of positive mood and lower levels of negative mood. In line with previous research, receiving support without reciprocation was associated with increases in negative mood. Giving support, regardless of receipt, was associated with a decrease in negative mood.     

Social support in spouses of cancer patients: What do they get and to what end?

Using a retrospective design, the authors assessed several different aspects of social support (perceived, received, satisfaction with received, and support seeking) in 95 spouses of cancer survivors. The goals of the investigation were to (a) describe in detail the differences between husbands and wives on these support dimensions and (b) explore whether the relation between support and adjustment was different for husbands as compared to wives. While husbands and wives were generally similar-in their general perceptions of available support and in the amount of support they reported seeking, consistent with our hypothesis, compared to husbands of breast cancer victims, wives of prostate cancer victims reported receiving more support and being more satisfied with the support they received. Measures of social support predicted husbands’reports of marital satisfaction and adjustment, but not wives’reports. Partial correlation analyses indicated that sex differences in these support-adjustment links were not attributable to differences in age, or in the time between completing treatment and participating in the study. Sex differences observed in the present study are interpreted as highlighting the need for theory development to account for the complex mechanisms underlying links between supportive transactions and marital satisfaction and adjustment.     

"Thanks for sharing that": ruminators and their social support networks.

Receiving positive social support after a trauma generally is related to better adjustment to the trauma. The personality of trauma survivors may affect the extent to which they seek social support, their perceived receipt of social support, and the extent to which they benefit from social support. The authors hypothesized that people with a ruminative coping style, who tended to focus excessively on their own emotional reactions to a trauma, compared to those without a ruminative coping style, would seek more social support, and would benefit more from social support, but would report receiving less social support. These hypotheses were confirmed in a longitudinal study of people who lost a loved one to a terminal illness.     

Family protective factors among urban African American youth.

Examined the relations among family protective factors, stressful events, and behavioral adjustment of 64 African American 6th graders. The youths reported on family stressors, father-figure involvement, and kin support. Their primary caregivers reported on parenting, father-figure involvement, and family stressors. Teachers reported on child social skill deficits, acting out, and shy or anxious behavior. Based on regression analyses, stress exposure associated positively with child social skill deficits, acting out, and shy or anxious behavior. Parental warmth was associated negatively with shy or anxious behavior. Parental use of corporal punishment was associated positively with child acting out. For youth exposed to high numbers of family stressors, parental demandingness was associated negatively with child acting out and kin support was associated negatively with acting out and shy or anxious behavior, suggesting that these family factors partially shield children from the negative effects of stress.     

Accounting for changes in social support among married older adults: insights from the MacArthur Studies of Successful Aging

Using longitudinal, community-based data from the MacArthur Studies of Successful Aging, the authors examined determinants of changes in social support receipt among 439 married older adults. In general, social support increased over time, especially for those with many preexisting social ties, but those experiencing more psychological distress and cognitive dysfunction reported more negative encounters with others. Gender affected social support receipt: Men received emotional support primarily from their spouses, whereas women drew more heavily on their friends and relatives and children for emotional support. Discussion centers on the importance of social support provision to those with the greatest needs.     

Receiving support as a mixed blessing: evidence for dual effects of support on psychological outcomes

Although social support is thought to boost feelings of closeness in dyadic relationships, recent findings have suggested that support receipt can increase distress in recipients. The authors investigated these apparently contrary findings in a large daily diary study of couples over 31 days leading up to a major stressor. Results confirm that daily support receipt was associated with greater feelings of closeness and greater negative mood. These average effects, however, masked substantial heterogeneity. In particular, those recipients showing greater benefits on closeness tended to show lesser cost on negative mood, and vice versa. Self-esteem was examined as a possible moderator of support effects, but its role was evident in only a subset of recipients. These results imply that models of dyadic support processes must accord a central role to between-individual heterogeneity.     

Gender effects on social support provision and receipt

This study was conducted to examine the influence of gender on social support provision and receipt using both self-report and observational methodologies. In response to another person sharing a problem, we predicted that men would be more likely than women to provide advice, and women would be more likely than men to provide emotional support. We also predicted women would be more likely than men to receive emotional support, and men would be more likely than women to receive negative support. Sixty-one pairs of college students, same-sex and mixed-sex dyads, shared a problem with each other. Problem-sharing transactions were audiotaped and transcribed for content analysis. Opposite-sex providers offered more emotional support than did same-sex providers, whereas same-sex providers listened more than did opposite-sex providers. No gender differences were found for advice-giving. Men were more likely than women to receive negative support. These results suggest that gender composition of the dyad has a greater influence on support provision and receipt than provider or recipient gender alone.     

Talking facilitates cognitive-emotional processes of adaptation to an acute stressor

The authors examined the influence of talking and the social context of talking on cognitive-emotional processes of adjustment to stressors. Two hundred fifty-six undergraduates viewed a stressful stimulus and were then assigned to a no-talk control condition or 1 of 3 talk conditions: talk alone, talk to a validating confederate, or talk to an invalidating confederate. Two days later, they were reexposed to the stressor. Compared with individuals in the no-talk condition, those in the talk alone and validate conditions had a lower level of intrusive thoughts in the 2-day interim, and they had lower perceived stress when reexposed to the stressor. The effects of talking and validation on perceived stress appeared to be mediated by lowered intrusions. The benefits of talking were diluted when disclosures were invalidated. These findings suggest that talking about acute stressors can facilitate adjustment to stressors through cognitive resolution.     

Maternal Acceptance and Consistency of Discipline as Buffers of Divorce Stressors on Children's Psychological Adjustment Problems

This study examines whether two aspects of mothering—acceptance and consistency of discipline—buffer the effect of divorce stressors on adjustment problems in 678 children, ages 8 to 15, whose families had divorced within the past 2 years. Children reported on divorce stressors; both mothers and children reported on mothering and internalizing and externalizing problems. Multiple regressions indicate that for maternal report of mothering, acceptance interacted with divorce stressors in predicting both dimensions of adjustment problems, with the pattern of findings supporting a stress-buffering effect. For child report of mothering, acceptance, consistency of discipline, and divorce stressors interacted in predicting adjustment problems. The relation between divorce stressors and internalizing and externalizing problems is stronger for children who report low acceptance and low consistency of discipline than for children who report either low acceptance and high consistency of discipline or high acceptance and low consistency of discipline. Children reporting high acceptance and high consistency of discipline have the lowest levels of adjustment problems. Implications of these results for understanding variability in children's postdivorce adjustment and interventions for divorced families are discussed.     

Parenting stress and external stressors as predictors of maternal ratings of child adjustment

This study sought to disentangle the effects of different kinds of stress on maternal ratings of child externalizing and internalizing problems, social inhibition, and social competence, with a primary focus on parenting stress. The relations were explored in a sample consisting of mothers of 436 children (M_age = 7 years) in Sweden. Half the sample had had early clinical contacts during infancy due to child regulation problems, and the rest were mothers without known such early contacts. Demographic factors, family stressors, and parenting stress were examined in stress – adjustment models. Family stressors were clinical contact during infancy, current child and parent health problems, recent negative life events, and insufficient social support. Parenting stress as a mediator of the effect of other stressors on rated child adjustment was tested as was social support as a moderator of the effect of parenting stress on adjustment. The results showed that a higher parenting stress level was associated with maternal ratings of more externalizing and internalizing behaviors, more social inhibition, and lower social competence. Other family stressors and background variables were also found to be of importance, mainly for externalizing and internalizing problems and to some extent for social competence. Social inhibition had a unique relation to parenting stress only. Parenting stress mediated effects of other stressors in twelve models, whereas social support had no moderating effect on the link between parenting stress and child adjustment. Thus, parenting stress seems to be an important overarching construct. Clinical implications are proposed.     

Life stressors, personal and social resources, and depression: a 4-year structural model

By extending earlier stress-resistance research with a 1-year time lag, findings with 254 adults show that adaptive personality characteristics and positive family support operate prospectively over 4 years in predicting reduced depression, even when prior depression is controlled. By strengthening knowledge about the determinants and mediational role of coping, the results demonstrate in a 2-group LISREL analysis that the pattern of predictive relations differs under high and low stressors. Under high stressors, personal and social resources relate to future psychological health indirectly, through more adaptive coping strategies. Under low stressors, these resources relate directly to psychological health. The results support the idea that such resources play a causal role in maintaining psychological health, and they suggest the potential for a general, adaptively oriented framework applicable to adjustment under both high and low stressors.     

The effect of social support on prenatal care.

This article examines the effects of social support on the receipt of adequate prenatal care. A study was conducted to test the hypotheses that social support helps women overcome obstacles to obtaining such care, and that social support has greater effects on women facing the most obstacles. Survey data were gathered for more than 90% of the women who gave birth in Oklahoma hospitals during specific periods in the summer of 1986. The authors found only weak support for the first hypothesis, and for the second hypothesis found only support that must be qualified according to the measure of social support. Strong evidence indicates, however, that difficulty in paying for prenatal care, personal inconveniences, and unwanted pregnancies are obstacles to obtaining such care. The findings account for some of the frequently observed demographic differences associated with receipt of adequate prenatal care, although such differences persisted even after the obstacles were considered. The authors present implications for policy makers seeking to improve women's receipt of adequate prenatal care.     

Interactions Between Goal Instability and Social Support on College Freshman Adjustment

The authors examined the moderating effect of goal instability on the benefits of components of perceived social support on entering freshmen's academic and personal adjustment. A significant interaction was identified between goal instability and two components of social support: appraised and belonging. Low goal-directed individuals reporting low appraised social support reported lower levels of personal adjustment than did high goal-directed individuals with the same level of appraised social support. In addition, high goal-directed individuals reporting a high sense of belonging reported greater personal adjustment than did high goal-directed individuals with low reported sense of belonging. Implications for the role of goal directedness and social support on improving college adjustment are discussed.     

How Does Stigma "Get Under the Skin"?: The Mediating Role of Emotion Regulation

ABSTRACT— Stigma is a risk factor for mental health problems, but few studies have considered how stigma leads to psychological distress. The present research examined whether specific emotion-regulation strategies account for the stigma-distress association. In an experience-sampling study, rumination and suppression occurred more on days when stigma-related stressors were reported than on days when these stressors were not reported, and rumination mediated the relationship between stigma-related stress and psychological distress. The effect of social support on distress was moderated by the concealability of the stigma: Lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) respondents reported more isolation and less social support than African American respondents subsequent to experiencing stigma-related stressors, whereas African Americans reported greater social support than LGB participants. Social isolation mediated the stigma-distress association among LGB respondents. In a second experimental study, participants who ruminated following the recall of an autobiographical discrimination event exhibited prolonged distress on both implicit and explicit measures relative to participants who distracted themselves; this finding provides support for a causal role of rumination in the stigma-distress relationship.     

A dyadic investigation of exercise support between cardiac patients and their spouses.

The authors examined married partners' similarity in reported exercise behavior as a moderator of the association between social support for exercise provided and received by extending an actor-partner dyadic effects model. Participants were married cardiac rehabilitation patients and their spouses (N=99 couples). For couples similar in their reported exercise behavior, a significant association was found between both partners' independent reports of providing exercise support to and receiving exercise support from one another (n=49 couples). However, for couples differing in their reported exercise behavior (n=50 couples), no association was found between either partner's provision and receipt of support for exercise. Findings have the potential to inform practitioners of patients who may not be receiving adequate social support for their recommended exercise. Future interventions may consider implementing dyadic educational or motivational strategies with patients and their spouses.     

Determinants of perceived social support: interpersonal transactions, personal outlook, and transient affective states

During the last decade, the study of social support has relied heavily on recipients' reports of perceived support. However, such reports of support may reflect not only actual supportive interpersonal transactions but also the recipients' own personal and perceptual dispositions and comparatively transient mood states. This study examines these factors' independent effects on perceived support. Interpersonal transactions of social support were assessed in a longitudinal panel design using reports from 486 adult male respondents and their significant others (mostly wives). Using structural modeling techniques (LISREL VI), an unfolding series of statistical analyses were performed. The results provide strong support for a model in which recipients' perception of support is determined significantly and strongly by actual interpersonal transactions as reported by significant others, moderately by the recipients' negative outlook bias, and weakly by their anxiety and depression as indicators of their poor mental health. The implications of the results for future research are discussed.     

Relations of SARS-related stressors and coping to Chinese college students' psychological adjustment during the 2003 Beijing SARS epidemic

This study examined the main and interactive relations of stressors and coping related to severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) with Chinese college students' psychological adjustment (psychological symptoms, perceived general health, and life satisfaction) during the 2003 Beijing SARS epidemic. All the constructs were assessed by self-report in an anonymous survey during the final period of the outbreak. Results showed that the relations of stressors and coping to psychological adjustment varied by domain of adjustment. Regression analyses suggested that the number of stressors and use of avoidant coping strategies positively predicted psychological symptoms. Active coping positively predicted life satisfaction when controlling for stressors. Moreover, all types of coping served as a buffer against the negative impact of stressors on perceived general health. These findings hold implications for university counseling services during times of acute, large-scale stressors. In particular, effective screening procedures should be developed to identify students who experience a large number of stressors and thus are at high risk for developing mental health problems. Intervention efforts that target coping should be adapted to take account of the uncontrollability of stressors and clients' cultural preferences for certain coping strategies. A multidimensional battery of psychological adjustment should be used to monitor clients' psychological adjustment to stressors and evaluate the efficacy of intervention.     

Influences of stress and situation-specific mastery beliefs and satisfaction with social support on well-being and academic performance.

The present study examined the effects of stress and cumulative situation-specific mastery beliefs and satisfaction with social support on somatic and psychological symptomatology and academic performance of 146 college men. Stress was directly related to increased symptomatology and decreased grade point average, whereas mastery beliefs were directly associated with reduced depression and anxiety. Satisfaction with social support was related to anxiety through an interaction with mastery. Neither mastery nor satisfaction with support appeared to act as a stress-buffer through a statistical interaction with stress to moderate effects of high stress. However, earlier analysis of some of the same data showed that total stress, the best predictor of each outcome in this study, was reduced by the combination of strong situation-specific mastery beliefs and high satisfaction with support for subjects who faced many stressors. The combined findings show that situation-specific mastery beliefs reduced appraisal of stress and were associated with better psychological adjustment.     

Stressors and child and adolescent psychopathology: moving from markers to mechanisms of risk

In the first half of this review, the authors critically evaluate existing research on the association between stressors and symptoms of psychopathology in children and adolescents. This analysis reveals (a) problems with conceptualizations of stress, (b) variability in measurement of stressors, and (c) lack of theory-driven research. To address these problems, the authors propose a general conceptual model of the relation between stressors and child and adolescent psychopathology. The authors examine basic tenets of this general model in the second half of this article by testing a specific model in which negative parenting mediates the relation between economic stressors and psychological symptoms in young people. Results generally provide support for the specific model as well as for the broader model.     

GATEKEEPING TRANSACTIONS

This research explored gatekeeping transactions of professional women in selected occupational fields. Subjects were asked to keep daily records on strategies they used to gain needed resources from other people in their workplace. Characteristics of gatekeeping transactions were studied as potential stressors that might affect specific indicators of mental health. Results suggest that differences in levels of job satisfaction and substance use can be predicted by specific characteristics of gatekeeping transactions, such as total number of transactions, number of strategies used per transaction, negativity of transactions, and gender and role status of gatekeeper. Patterns of influence strategies used by the subjects are discussed, as are implications for future research on gatekeeping transactions in relation to professional women's mental health and job satisfaction.