Social Support: Theory, Research and Applications

NATO ASI Series Advanced Science Institutes Series

A Series presenting the results of activities sponsored by the NATO Science Committee, which aims at the dissemination of advanced scientific and technological knowledge, with a view to strengthening links between scientific communities.

The Series is published by an international board of publishers in conjunction with the NATO Scientific Affairs Division

A Life SCiences Plenum Publishing Corporation B Physics London and New York

C Mathematical and D. Reidel Publishing Company Physical Sciences Dordrecht and Boston

D Behavioural and Martinus Nijhoff Publishers Social Sciences DordrechtiBoston/Lancaster

E Applied Sciences

F Comp'uter and Springer-Verlag Systems Sciences Berlin/Heidelberg/New York

G Ecological Sciences

Series D: Behavioural and Social Sciences - No. 24

Social Support: Theory, Research and Applications

edited by

Irwin G. Sarason Barbara R. Sarason University of Washington Seattle, Washington, USA

1985 Martinus Nijhoff Publishers Dordrecht / Boston / Lancaster

Published in cooperation with NATO Scientific Affairs Division

Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Social Support: Theory, Research and Applications, Chateau de 80nas, France, September 19-23, 1983

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Main entry under title:

Social support.

(NATO ASI series. Series D, Behavioural and social sciences ; no. 24)

Proceedings of the NATO Advances Research Workshop on Social Support, Chateau de Banas, France, September 19-23, 1983.

Incl udes index. 1. Social service--Congresses. 2. Interpersonal

relations--Congresses. 3. Helping bchavior--Congresses. 4. Social interaction--Congresses. I. Sarason, Irwin G. II. Sarason. Barbara R. III. North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Scientific Affairs Division. IV. NATO Advan~ed·Re.earch Workshop on Scc~al Support (1983 : Chtteau de Bonas, France) V!' Series. HV40.S6174 1985 361 85-5139 ISBN-13: 978-94-010-8761-2

ISBN-13: 978-94-010-8761-2 e-ISBN-13: 978-94-009-5115-0 DOl: 10.1007/978-94-009-5115-0

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Copyrigh~ © 1985 by Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Dordrecht Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1 st edition 1985

Preface

"No one is rich enough to do without a neighbor." Traditional Danish Proverb

This bit of Danish folk wisdom expresses an idea underlying much of the current thinking about social support. While the clinical literature has for a long time recognized the deleterious effects of unwholesome social relationships, only more recently has the focus broadened to include the positive side of social interaction, those interpersonal ties that are desired, rewarding, and protective. This book contains theoretical and research contributions by a group of scholars who are charting this side of the social spectrum.

Evidence is increasing that maladaptive ways of thinking and behaving occur disproportionately among people with few social supports. Rather than sapping self-reliance, strong ties with others particularly family members seem to encourage it. Reliance on others and self-reliance are not only compatible but complementary to one another. While the mechanism by which an intimate relationship is protective has yet to be worked out, the following factors seem to be involved: intimacy, social integration through shared concerns, reassurance of worth, the opportunity to be nurtured by others, a sense of reliable alliance, and guidance.

The major advance that is taking place in the literature on social support is that reliance is being -placed less on anecdotal and clinical evidence and more on empirical inquiry. The chapters of this book reflect this important development and identify the frontiers that are currently being explored.

The book has five parts. Part One is concerned with several theoretical and methodological issues. What is the relationship between actual and perceived support? How can social support be assessed? Can it be investigated from an experimental standpoint?

The papers in Part Two look at social suport in a developmental context and consider some of the individual difference variables, such as personality and sex, that may be related to social support. In addition, they consider the role of network variables that bear upon the quality and quantity of social support and may also be correlated with personality and developmental experiences.

Part Three deals with what happens when there are deficiencies in either the quality or quantity of support or when there are deficiencies in both. The topic of loneliness is an example of many human experiences (social support is another example) which are neglected or ignored by researchers for a long time and then suddenly become exciting fields of inquiry. It is encouraging to see the increasing theoretical and methodological sophistication being brought to bear in the study of loneliness. The chapters of Part Three are especially valuable because of

VI Social Support

their attempts to link the social support and loneliness concepts and their analysis of social relationships from the perspective of the individual's social perceptions.

Part Four considers the interrelationship between stress and social support in personal maladaptation. Why is it that some people are able to resist being overwhelmed by untoward events, while others succumb to them? In what ways are social support deficiencies related to coping failures that result in unhappiness, and disorder? The chapters of Part Four delineate a number of interpersonal factors (for example, loss and other blows received in the course of living) that play important roles in human disorder.

The chapters of Part V reflect the complexity that almost always becomes apparent when a phenomenon receives careful study. While the idea that interventions might be designed to make up for deficiencies in social support makes perfectly good sense, the chapters of Part Five make clear that the ways to implement such interventions are by no means obvious. One impediment to easy implementation is the fact that there are limits to how much support a person can give. One reason for these limits is that there are costs attached to caring about and for other people. Social support can provide a powerful buffer against stress but the communication of support in a way that does not unduly tax the communicator and nurturer needs to be better understood.

All of the chapters of this book are based on papers presented at an Advanced Research Workshop held at Chateau de Bonas, France, September 19-23, 1983: This international meeting, attended by leading researchers actively studying social support, was sponsored and supported by NATO'.s Scientific Affairs Division. While this volume is the most tangible product of the meeting, the interchanges among the participants .were highly stimulating and have led to many contacts and collaborations among those who attended the meeting.

We are indebted to Liz Klein and Gregory Pierce for their help in the production of this book.

Irwin G. Sarason Barbara R. Sarason

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Part I THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES

Chapter 1 CONCEPTUAL AND THEORETICAL DILEMMAS FACING SOCIAL SUPPORT Brian L. Wilcox and Eric M. Vernberg

3

Chapter 2 SOCIAL SUPPORT: THEORETICAL AD~ANCES, 21 RECENT FINDINGS AND PRESSING ISSUES Toni C. Antonucci

Chapter 3 SOCIAL SUPPORT - INSIGHTS FROM ASSESS- 39 MENT AND EXPERIMENTATION Irwin G. Sarason and Barbara R. Sarason

Chapter 4 SOCIAL SUPPORT AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL- 51 BEING: THEORETICAL POSSIBILITIES Peggy A. Thoits

Chapter 5 MEASURING THE FUNCTIONAL COMPONENTS OF 73 SOCIAL SUPPORT Sheldon Cohen, Robin Mermelstein, Tom Kamarck and Harry M. Hoberman

Chapter 6 SOCIAL SUPPORT AND SOCIAL HEALTH 95 Robert M. Kaplan

Part II HUMAN DEVELOPMENT, PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL NETWORKS

Chapter 7 SOCIAL NETWORKS AND THE ECOLOGY OF HUMAN 117 DEVELOPMENT: THEORY, RESEARCH AND APPLICATION Barton J. Hirsch

Chapter 8 LONGITUDINAL COURSE OF SOCIAL SUPPORT 137 AMONG MEN IN THE BALTIMORE LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF AGING Paul T. Costa, Jr., Alan B. Zonderman and Robert R. McCrae

Chapter 9 INTIMACY, SOCIAL SUPPORT, AND LOCUS OF 155 CONTROL AS MODERATORS OF STRESS Herbert M. Lefcourt

Vll

VIII Social Support

Chapter 10 COPING STYLES, SOCIAL SUPPORT AND SEX- 173 DIFFERENCES P.B. Defares, M. Brandes, C.H.Th. Nass and J.D. van der Ploeg

Chapter 11 A CONCEPTUALIZATION OF PROFESSIONAL 187 WOMEN'S INTERPERSONAL FIELDS: SOCIAL SUPPORT, REFERENCE GROUPS, AND PERSONS-TO-BE-RECKONED-WITH Jeanne M. Plas, Kathleen V. Hoover-Dempsey and Barbara Strudler Wallston

Chapter 12 FROM SOCIAL SUPPORT TO SOCIAL NETWORK 205 Barry Wellman, with the assistance of Robert Hiscott

Part III LONELINESS AND PERCEIVED SUPPORT

Chapter 13 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LONELINESS: SOME 225 PERSONALITY ISSUES IN THE STUDY OF SOCIAL SUPPORT Warren H. Jones

Chapter 14 THE FUNCTIONS OF PERSPECTIVES FROM RESEARCH ON LONELINESS AND SOCIAL ISOLATION Karen S. Rook

SOCIAL BONDS: SOCIAL SUPPORT,

243

Chapter 15 LONELINESS RESEARCH: BASIC CONCEPTS AND 269 FINDINGS Letitia Anne Peplau

Chapter 16 PERCEIVED SUPPORT AND SOCIAL 287 INTERACTION AMONG FRIENDS AND CONFIDANTS Kenneth Heller and Brian Lakey

Part IV STRESS, COPING AND MALADAPTION

Chapter 17 LIFE STRESS AND HUMAN DISORDER: 303 CONCEPTUALIZATION AND MEASUREMENT OF THE DISORDERED GROUP Richard A. Depue and Scott M. Monroe

Chapter 18 LIFE EVENTS. SOCIAL SUPPORT AND 321 CLINICAL PSYCHIATRIC DISORDER E.S. Paykel

Table of Contents

Chapter 19 SOCIAL SUPPORT, DEPRESSION

LIFE

George W. Brown and Antonia Bifulco

IX

EVENTS AND 349

Chapter 20 SOCIAL SUPPORT AND CHILDREN OF DIVORCE 371 Irwin Sandler, Sharlene Wolchik and Sandy Braver

Chapter 21 LIMITATIONS OF SOCIAL SUPPORT IN THE 391 STRESS PROCESS Stevan E. Hobfoll

Part V HELPING AND THE COSTS OF CARING

CHAPTER 22 THEORY INTO PRACTICE: SURFACE IN PLANNING INTERVENTIONS SUPPORT Benjamin Gottlieb

ISSUES THAT WHICH MOBILIZE

Chapter 23 LOSS

SOCIAL SUPPORT AND THE ALLEVIATION OF

Margaret S. Stroebe and Wolfgang Stroebe

417

439

Chapter 24 REACTIONS TO VICTIMS OF LIFE CRISIS: 463 SUPPORT ATTEMPTS THAT FAIL Camille B. Wortman and Darrin R. Lehman

Chapter 25 THE COSTS OF CARING: A PERSPECTIVE ON 491 TH~ RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SEX AND PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTRESS Ronald C. Kessler, Jane D. McLeod, and Elaine Wethington

Author Index 507

XI

Contributors to this Volume

Toni C. Antonucci, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48106, USA

Antonia Bifulco, Department of Social Policy and Social Science, Bedford College and Royal Holloway College, University of London, 11 Bedford Square, London WCl, England.

M. Brandjes, University of Wageningen, Wageningen, The Netherlands

Sandy Braver, Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA

George Brown, Department of Social Policy and Social Science, Bedford College and Royal Holloway College, University of London, 11 Bedford Square, London WCl, England.

Sheldon Cohen, Department of Psychology, Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA

Paul Costa, Gerontology Research Center, National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Mental Health, Baltimore City General Hospital, Baltimore, MD 21224, USA

P.B. Defares, Department of Psychology, University of Wageningen, Hollandseweg I, 6706 KN, The Netherlands

Richard A. Depue, Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA

Benjamin H. Gottlieb, Department of Psychology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada NlG 2Wl

Kenneth Heller, Department of Psychology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA

Barton Hirsch, Department of Psychology, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61801, USA

Harry M. Hoberman, Department of Psychology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403, USA

Stevan E. Hobfoll, Department of Psychology, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv 69978, Tel Aviv, Israel

Kathleen V. Hoover-Dempsey, Department of Psychology, George Peabody College of Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37203, USA

Warren H. Jones, Department of Psychology, University. of Tulsa, 600 S. Coll~ge, Tulsa, OK 74104, USA

XII Social Support

Tom Kamarck, Department of Psychology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403, USA

Robert M. Kaplan, Department of Community Medicine M-022 , University of California-San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA

Ronald C. Kessler, Department of Sociology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48106, USA

Brian Lakey, Department Bloomington, IN 47405, USA

of Psychology, Indiana University,

Herbert M. Lefcourt, Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

Darrin R. Lehman, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48106, USA

Robert R. McCrae, Gerontology Research Center, National Institute on Aging, National National Institutes of Health, Baltimore City Hospital, Baltimore, MD 21224, USA

Jane D. McLeod, Department of Sociology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48106, USA

Robin Mermelstein, Department of Psychology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403, USA

Scott M. Monroe, Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA

C.H.Th. Nass, Netherlands

University of Wageningen, Wageningen, The

Eugene S. Paykel, Professor of Psychiatry, St. George's Hospital Medical School, London S.W. 17, England

Letitia A. Peplau, Department of Psychology, University of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90024, USA

Jeanne M. Plas, Department of Psychology, George Peabody College of Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37203, USA

J.D. van der Ploeg, Regional Mental Health Service, Vondellaan 47, Leiden, The Netherlands

Karen S. Rook, Program California-Irvine, Irvine, CA

in Social Ecology, 92717, USA

University of

Contributors XlII

Irwin Sandler, Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA

Barbara R. Sarason, Department of Psychology NI-25, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA

Irwin G. Sarason, Department of Psychology NI-25, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA

Margaret S. Stroebe, Universitat Tubingen, Friedrichstrass 21, D 7400 Tubingen, ·W. Germany

Wolfgang Stroebe, Universitat Tubingen, Friedrichstrabe 21, D 7400 Tubingen, W. Germany

Peggy A. Thoits, Department of Sociology, Green Hall, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA

Eric Vernberg, Department of Psychology, University of Virginia-Charlottesville, Charlottesville, VA 22901, USA .

Barbara Strudler Wallston, Department of Psychology, George Peabody College of Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37~03, USA

Barry Wellman, Centre for Urban and Community Studies, University of Toronto, 455 Spadina Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 2GB

Elaine Wethington, Department of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48106, USA

Sociology, University of

Brian L. Wilcox, Department of Psychology, University of Virginia-Charlottesville, Charlottesville, VA 22901, USA

Sharlene Wolchik, Department University, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA

of Psychology, Arizona State

Camille B. Wortman, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106, USA

Alan B. Zonderman, Gerontology Research Center, National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Mental Health, Baltimore City Hospital, Baltimore, MD 21224, USA