Social Support, Life Events and Depression
Published 1 January 1985
George W. Brown, Antonia Bifulco
Citations531
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Abstract
There has been an intimidating growth of interest in the relationship of social support and health. Cobb and Jones (1984) cite 34 recent reviews and puzzle about this explosion of interest for, as they note, there is hardly enough empirical material to justify it. Instead of adding to then we will deal with the implications of one program of research which for the last 15 years has concerned itself with the onset and course of affective disorders — largely of depression in women. Attention has been concentrated on one sex and one condition; a common core of measures concerning stressors has been employed and these have been utilized by many other research centers. It is this intense and protracted concentration of effort that we trust justifies such a parochial review.
Keywords
Psychology
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