Social support and occupational stress: Talking to supervisors

Abstract

The contents of communications between supervisors and subordinates were investigated in the context of occupational stress as potential forms of social support for 225 registered nurses randomly selected from seven hospitals. Survey results supported a three-form typology of contents of communications: positive job-related, negative job-related, and non-job-related communications. Nurses' perceptions of social support from their supervisors (functional social support) were more closely related to positive job-related communications and non-job-related communications than to negative job-related communications. Main effects on individual strains were found for both functional social support and contents of communications, especially positive communications. The so-called buffering effect, in which social support interacts with job stressors to reduce the strength of the stressor-strain relationship, was especially found for non-job-related communications as a form of social support.