Quality of social support in mental and physical health

The current study investigates the relationship between social support and mental and physical health. Results indicate that poor functional support (or quality of support) is related to physical health problems while structural support (or social network size) is not. Moreover, although both poor functional and structural support are related to depression and anxiety, functional support is more strongly related to these outcome variables, the strongest relationship being associated with depression. Depression and hostility are also related to social isolation, although the relationship is again stronger for depression. The results suggest that the quality of social relationships is more important than quantity for optimal mental and physical health. The clinical relevance of these findings is that the quality of social support in the lives of individuals is central to recovery and should be addressed in medical and mental health treatment planning whenever it is an etiological or maintaining factor. The author dedicates this paper to her beloved father, Charles VanderVoort and her colleagues Dr. Uwe Stuecher and Dr. Gay Barfield whom she describes as “natural altruists, the rarest and most loving type of people in the world.”