Alfred Dean

The stress-buffering role of social support. Problems and prospects for systematic investigation.

Over the pase 20 years, a sizable body of literature has developed which serves to establish that stressful life events are associated with the onset, incidence, and prevalence of a wide range of physical and psychiatric disorders. As measured by the Holmes and Rahe Social Readjustment Rating Scale, or similar instruments, the stressful life events are fundamentally sociological in nature. Yet, paradoxically, the research has been largely limited in the relevant basic sociological theory and data brought to or yielded from investigation. Recently, however, several prominent researchers have emphasized the importance of studying the role of social support systems as possible buffers or mediators of stress. The most basic objective of this paper is to contribute to the advancement of such studies by clearly identifying key empirical, theoretical and methodological problems and suggesting some approaches to their resolution. Specifically, this paper offers: a) a selective review of the essential status of empirical knowledge; b) an examination of the nature and significance of social support systems; c) clarification of methodological and theoretical problems; and d) detailed proposals for approaching problems of measurement and research design.

Modelling social support, life events, competence, and depression in the context of age and sex

As part of a longitudinal study, life events, social support, and personal competence are examined in terms of their ability to explain depressive symptomatology in three empirically discerned age groups of males and females. The major findings point to the centrality of social support in the epidemiology of depression in all age-sex groupings. While support was found to be the most significant predictor of depression in all groups, the magnitude of its contribution was found to vary by age and sex. The effects of life events and personal competence, on the other hand, were found to vary across age and sex. They also indirectly affected depression via social support. While some evidence was found for interaction effects among the antecedent variables, these contributions were modest. The ability of the model variables to explain depression decreased over age for both males and females. A theoretical framework is presented in which the role of social support and the functions of personal competence and life events are conceptualized as being socially structured. The implications of these and other findings are discussed.

Social Support in the Etiology of Depression: A Panel Study

The substantial contemporary interest in the epidemiologic functions of social support or social support networks in depression and other disorders is rooted in a number of sources. These include (1) the growing scientific and clinical conviction that stress may be a significant factor in a wide variety of psychiatric and physical disorders. (2) In the epidemiologic literature in particular, the weight of evidence that recent life changes have a significant, if modest, effect on the occurrence of depression leads to a sustained search for clarification of factors which may explain the differential vulnerability of individuals to illness in the context of recent life changes or other stressors. These factors include biological, psychological or social support. (3) The existence of highly suggestive evidence that social support may serve to reduce the risk of illness in the face of stress (the buffering effect of social support). And, (4) the theoretical importance of intimate relationships within the fields of sociology, clinical psychology and psychiatry.