Stress and Support Processes in Close Relationships

Abstract

To date, our understanding of social support has relied more strongly on people's reports of the resources they could gain from their social networks than on the study of their stress-related transactions. The measures of social support that have achieved the most popularity (Cohen et al., 1985; Procidano & Heller, 1983; Sarason et al., 1983) gauge the psychological sense of support that people develop but leave obscure how their experiences in particular relationships affect their receipt and provision of support. As Pearlin and McCall (1990) observe, "the social and interactional character of support has either been ignored altogether or largely taken for granted." By treating social support as a dynamic process that unfolds in particular relationships and situations, we can identify some of the contingencies governing its expression and thereby learn more about the conditions under which its protective effect is conferred (Rutter, 1987). Equally important, such a process-oriented approach can offer instruction about the circumstances in which social support miscarries.