Social support is the perception and actuality that one is cared for, has assistance available from other people, and most popularly, that one is part of a supportive social network. These supportive resources can be emotional (e.g., nurturance), informational (e.g., advice), or companionship (e.g., sense of belonging); tangible (e.g., financial assistance) or intangible (e.g., personal advice). Social support can be measured as the perception that one has assistance available, the actual received assistance, or the degree to which a person is integrated in a social network. Support can come from many sources, such as family, friends, pets, neighbors, coworkers, organizations, etc.
Social support is studied across a wide range of disciplines including psychology, communications, medicine, sociology, nursing, public health, education, rehabilitation, and social work. Social support has been linked to many benefits for both physical and mental health, but "social support" (e.g., gossiping about friends) is not always beneficial.
Social support theories and models were prevalent as intensive academic studies in the 1980s and 1990s, [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] and are linked to the development of caregiver and payment models, and community delivery systems in the US and around the world. [6] Two main models have been proposed to describe the link between social support and health: the buffering hypothesis and the direct effects hypothesis. [7] Gender and cultural differences in social support have been found [8] in fields such as education "which may not control for age, disability, income and social status, ethnic and racial, or other significant factors".
Social support can be categorized and measured in several different ways.
There are four common functions of social support: [9] [10] [11]
Researchers also commonly make a distinction between perceived and received support. [14] [20] Perceived support refers to a recipient's subjective judgment that providers will offer (or have offered) effective help during times of need. Received support (also called enacted support) refers to specific supportive actions (e.g., advice or reassurance) offered by providers during times of need. [21]
Furthermore, social support can be measured in terms of structural support or functional support. [22] Structural support (also called social integration) refers to the extent to which a recipient is connected within a social network, like the number of social ties or how integrated a person is within his or her social network. [20] [9] Family relationships, friends, and membership in clubs and organizations contribute to social integration. [23] Functional support looks at the specific functions that members in this social network can provide, such as the emotional, instrumental, informational, and companionship support listed above. [24] Data suggests that emotional support may play a more significant role in protecting individuals from the deleterious effects of stress than structural means of support, such as social involvement or activity. [25]
These different types of social support have different patterns of correlations with health, personality, and personal relationships. [20] [26] For example, perceived support is consistently linked to better mental health whereas received support and social integration are not. [20] [26] In fact, research indicates that perceived social support that is untapped can be more effective and beneficial than utilized social support. [27] Some have suggested that invisible support, a form of support where the person has support without his or her awareness, may be the most beneficial. [28] [29] [30] This view has been complicated, however, by more recent research suggesting the effects of invisible social support – as with visible support – are moderated by provider, recipient, and contextual factors such as recipients' perceptions of providers' responsiveness to their needs, [31] or the quality of the relationship between the support provider and recipient. [32]
Social support can come from a variety of sources, including (but not limited to): family, friends, romantic partners, pets, community ties, and coworkers. [14] Sources of support can be natural (e.g., family and friends) or more formal (e.g., mental health specialists or community organizations). [33] The source of the social support is an important determinant of its effectiveness as a coping strategy. Support from a romantic partner is associated with health benefits, particularly for men. [34] However, one study has found that although support from spouses buffered the negative effects of work stress, it did not buffer the relationship between marital and parental stresses, because the spouses were implicated in these situations.However, work-family specific support worked more to alleviate work-family stress that feeds into marital and parental stress. [35] Employee humor is negatively associated with burnout, and positively with, stress, health and stress coping effectiveness. [35] Additionally, social support from friends did provide a buffer in response to marital stress, because they were less implicated in the marital dynamic. [36]
Early familial social support has been shown to be important in children's abilities to develop social competencies, [37] and supportive parental relationships have also had benefits for college-aged students. [38] Teacher and school personnel support have been shown to be stronger than other relationships of support. This is hypothesized to be a result of family and friend social relationships to be subject to conflicts whereas school relationships are more stable. [39]
Social support is also available among social media sites. As technology advances, the availability for online support increases. Social support can be offered through social media websites such as blogs, Facebook groups, health forums, and online support groups.
Early theories and research into Internet use tended to suggest negative implications for offline social networks (e.g., fears that Internet use would undermine desire for face-to-face interaction) and users' well-being. [40] [41] However, additional work showed null or even positive effects, [42] contributing to a more nuanced understanding of online social processes. Emerging data increasingly suggest that, as with offline support, [24] the effects of online social support are shaped by support provider, recipient, and contextual factors. For example, the interpersonal-connection-behaviors framework [41] reconciles conflicts in the research literature by suggesting that social network site use is likely to contribute to well-being when users engage in ways that foster meaningful interpersonal connection. Conversely, use may harm well-being when users engage in passive consumption of social media.
Online support can be similar to face-to-face social support, but may also offer convenience, anonymity, and non-judgmental interactions. [43] Online sources such as social media may be less redundant sources of social support for users with relatively little in-person support compared to persons with high in-person support. [44] Online sources may be especially important as potential social support resources for individuals with limited offline support, and may be related to physical and psychological well-being. [45] However, socially isolated individuals may also be more drawn to computer-mediated vs. in-person forms of interaction, which may contribute to bidirectional associations between online social activity and isolation or depression. [41]
Support sought through social media can also provide users with emotional comfort that relates them to others while creating awareness about particular health issues. Research conducted by Winzelberg et al. evaluated an online support group for women with breast cancer finding participants were able to form fulfilling supportive relationships in an asynchronous format and this form of support proved to be effective in reducing participants' scores on depression, perceived stress, cancer-related trauma measures, and even IVF treatments. [46] [47] This type of online communication can increase the ability to cope with stress. Social support through social media is potentially available to anyone with Internet access and allows users to create relationships and receive encouragement for a variety of issues, including rare conditions or circumstances.
Coulson claims online support groups provide a unique opportunity for health professionals to learn about the experiences and views of individuals. [48] This type of social support can also benefit users by providing them with a variety of information. Seeking informational social support allows users to access suggestions, advice, and information regarding health concerns or recovery. Many need social support, and its availability on social media may broaden access to a wider range of people in need. Both experimental and correlational research have indicated that increased social network site use can lead to greater perceived social support and increased social capital, both of which predict enhanced well-being. [49] [50] [51] [52]
An increasing number of interventions aim to create or enhance social support in online communities. While preliminary data often suggest such programs may be well received by users and may yield benefits, additional research is needed to more clearly establish the effectiveness of many such interventions. [53]
Until the late 2010s, research examining online social support tended to use ad hoc instruments or measures that were adapted from offline research, resulting in the possibility that measures were not well-suited for measuring online support, or had weak or unknown psychometric properties. [45] Instruments specifically developed to measure social support in online contexts include the Online Social Support Scale [54] (which has sub scales for esteem/emotional support, social companionship, informational support, and instrumental support) and the Online Social Experiences Measure [45] (which simultaneously assesses positive and negative aspects of online social activity and has predictive validity regarding cardiovascular implications of online social support).
Social support profile is associated with increased psychological well-being in the workplace [55] and in response to important life events. [56] There has been an ample amount of evidence showing that social support aids in lowering problems related to one's mental health. As reported by Cutrona, Russell, and Rose, in the elderly population that was in their studies, their results showed that elderly individuals who had relationships where their self-esteem was elevated were less likely to have a decline in their health. [57] In stressful times, social support helps people reduce psychological distress (e.g., anxiety or depression). [14] Social support can simultaneously function as a problem-focused (e.g. receiving tangible information that helps resolve an issue) and emotion-focused coping strategy (e.g. used to regulate emotional responses that arise from the stressful event) [58] Social support has been found to promote psychological adjustment in conditions with chronic high stress like HIV, [59] rheumatoid arthritis, [60] cancer, [61] stroke, [62] and coronary artery disease. [63] Whereas a lack of social support has been associated with a risk for an individual's mental health. This study also shows that the social support acts as a buffer to protect individuals from different aspects in regards to their mental and physical health, such as helping against certain life stressors. [64] Additionally, social support has been associated with various acute and chronic pain variables (for more information, see Chronic pain).
People with low social support report more sub-clinical symptoms of depression and anxiety than do people with high social support. [20] [65] In addition, people with low social support have higher rates of major mental disorder than those with high support. These include post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), [66] panic disorder, [67] social phobia, [68] major depressive disorder, [69] dysthymic disorder, [70] and eating disorders. [71] [72] Among people with schizophrenia, those with low social support have more symptoms of the disorder. [73] In addition, people with low support have more suicidal ideation, [74] and more alcohol and (illicit and prescription) drug problems. [75] [76] Similar results have been found among children. [77] Religious coping has especially been shown to correlate positively with positive psychological adjustment to stressors with enhancement of faith-based social support hypothesized as the likely mechanism of effect. [78] [79] However, more recent research reveals the role of religiosity/spirituality in enhancing social support may be overstated and in fact disappears when the personality traits of "agreeableness" and "conscientiousness" are also included as predictors. [80]
In a 2013 study, Akey et al. did a qualitative study of 34 men and women diagnosed with an eating disorder and used the Health Belief Model (HBM) to explain the reasons for which they forgo seeking social support. Many people with eating disorders have a low perceived susceptibility, which can be explained as a sense of denial about their illness. Their perceived severity of the illness is affected by those to whom they compare themselves to, often resulting in people believing their illness is not severe enough to seek support. Due to poor past experiences or educated speculation, the perception of benefits for seeking social support is relatively low. The number of perceived barriers towards seeking social support often prevents people with eating disorders from getting the support they need to better cope with their illness. Such barriers include fear of social stigma, financial resources, and availability and quality of support. Self-efficacy may also explain why people with eating disorders do not seek social support, because they may not know how to properly express their need for help. This research has helped to create a better understanding of why individuals with eating disorders do not seek social support, and may lead to increased efforts to make such support more available. Eating disorders are classified as mental illnesses but can also have physical health repercussions. Creating a strong social support system for those affected by eating disorders may help such individuals to have a higher quality of both mental and physical health. [81]
Various studies have been performed examining the effects of social support on psychological distress. Interest in the implications of social support were triggered by a series of articles published in the mid-1970s, each reviewing literature examining the association between psychiatric disorders and factors such as change in marital status, geographic mobility, and social disintegration. [82] [83] Researchers realized that the theme present in each of these situations is the absence of adequate social support and the disruption of social networks. This observed relationship sparked numerous studies concerning the effects of social support on mental health.
One particular study documented the effects of social support as a coping strategy on psychological distress in response to stressful work and life events among police officers. Talking things over among coworkers was the most frequent form of coping utilized while on duty, whereas most police officers kept issues to themselves while off duty. The study found that the social support between co-workers significantly buffered the relationship between work-related events and distress. [84]
Other studies have examined the social support systems of single mothers. One study by D'Ercole demonstrated that the effects of social support vary in both form and function and will have drastically different effects depending upon the individual. The study found that supportive relationships with friends and co-workers, rather than task-related support from family, was positively related to the mother's psychological well-being. D'Ercole hypothesizes that friends of a single parent offer a chance to socialize, match experiences, and be part of a network of peers. These types of exchanges may be more spontaneous and less obligatory than those between relatives. Additionally, co-workers can provide a community away from domestic life, relief from family demands, a source of recognition, and feelings of competence. D'Ercole also found an interesting statistical interaction whereby social support from co-workers decreased the experience of stress only in lower income individuals. The author hypothesizes that single women who earn more money are more likely to hold more demanding jobs which require more formal and less dependent relationships. Additionally, those women who earn higher incomes are more likely to be in positions of power, where relationships are more competitive than supportive. [85]
Many studies have been dedicated specifically to understanding the effects of social support in individuals with (PTSD). In a study by Haden et al., when victims of severe trauma perceived high levels of social support and engaged in interpersonal coping styles, they were less likely to develop severe PTSD when compared to those who perceived lower levels of social support. These results suggest that high levels of social support alleviate the strong positive association between level of injury and severity of PTSD, and thus serves as a powerful protective factor. [86] In general, data shows that the support of family and friends has a positive influence on an individual's ability to cope with trauma. In fact, a meta-analysis by Brewin et al. found that social support was the strongest predictor, accounting for 40%, of variance in PTSD severity. [87] However, perceived social support may be directly affected by the severity of the trauma. In some cases, support decreases with increases in trauma severity. [88]
College students have also been the target of various studies on the effects of social support on coping. Reports between 1990 and 2003 showed college stresses were increasing in severity. [89] Studies have also shown that college students' perceptions of social support have shifted from viewing support as stable to viewing them as variable and fluctuating. [90] In the face of such mounting stress, students naturally seek support from family and friends in order to alleviate psychological distress. A study by Chao found a significant two-way correlation between perceived stress and social support, as well as a significant three-way correlation between perceived stress, social support, and dysfunctional coping. The results indicated that high levels of dysfunctional coping deteriorated the association between stress and well-being at both high and low levels of social support, suggesting that dysfunctional coping can deteriorate the positive buffering action of social support on well-being. [91] Students who reported social support were found more likely to engage in less healthy activities, including sedentary behavior, drug and alcohol use, and too much or too little sleep. [92] Lack of social support in college students is also strongly related to life dissatisfaction and suicidal behavior. [93]
Social support has a clearly demonstrated link to physical health outcomes in individuals, with numerous ties to physical health including mortality. People with low social support are at a much higher risk of death from a variety of diseases (e.g., cancer or cardiovascular disease). [24] [26] Numerous studies have shown that people with higher social support have an increased likelihood for survival. [94]
Individuals with lower levels of social support have: more cardiovascular disease, [26] more inflammation and less effective immune system functioning, [95] [96] more complications during pregnancy, [97] and more functional disability and pain associated with rheumatoid arthritis, [98] among many other findings. Conversely, higher rates of social support have been associated with numerous positive outcomes, including faster recovery from coronary artery surgery, [99] less susceptibility to herpes attacks, [100] [101] a lowered likelihood to show age-related cognitive decline, [102] and better diabetes control. [103] [104] [105] [106] People with higher social support are also less likely to develop colds and are able to recover faster if they are ill from a cold. [107] There is sufficient evidence linking cardiovascular, neuroendocrine, and immune system function with higher levels of social support. [30] Social support predicts less atherosclerosis and is associated with the slower progression of an already diagnosed cardiovascular disease. [30] There is also a clearly demonstrated link between social support and better immune function, especially in older adults. [30] While links have been shown between neuroendocrine functionality and social support, further understanding is required before specific significant claims can be made. [30] Social support is also hypothesized to be beneficial in the recovery from less severe cancers. [108] Research focuses on breast cancers, but in more serious cancers factors such as severity and spread are difficult to measure in the context of impacts of social support. [108] The field of physical health often struggles with the combination of variables set by external factors that are difficult to control, such as the entangled impact of life events on social support and the buffering impact these events have. [109] There are serious ethical concerns involved with controlling too many factors of social support in individuals, leading to an interesting crossroads in the research. [109]
Social support is integrated into service delivery schemes and sometimes are a primary service provided by governmental contracted entities (e.g., companionship, peer services, family caregivers). Community services known by the nomenclature community support, and workers by a similar title, Direct Support Professional, have a base in social and community support "ideology". [110] [111] All supportive services from supported employment to supported housing, family support, educational support, and supported living are based upon the relationship between "informal and formal" supports, and "paid and unpaid caregivers". [112] Inclusion studies, based upon affiliation and friendship, or the conversely, have a similar theoretical basis [113] [114] as do "person-centered support" strategies.
Social support theories are often found in "real life" in cultural, music and arts communities, and as might be expected within religious communities. Social support is integral in theories of aging, and the "social care systems" have often been challenged (e.g., creativity throughout the lifespan, extra retirement hours). [115] [116] Ed Skarnulis' (state director) adage, "Support, don't supplant the family" applies to other forms of social support networks.
Although there are many benefits to social support, it is not always beneficial. It has been proposed that in order for social support to be beneficial, the social support desired by the individual has to match the support given to him or her; this is known as the matching hypothesis. [65] [117] [118] Psychological stress may increase if a different type of support is provided than what the recipient wishes to receive (e.g., informational is given when emotional support is sought). [119] [120] Additionally, elevated levels of perceived stress can impact the effect of social support on health-related outcomes. [121]
Other costs have been associated with social support. For example, received support has not been linked consistently to either physical or mental health; [20] [26] perhaps surprisingly, received support has sometimes been linked to worse mental health. [29] Additionally, if social support is overly intrusive, it can increase stress. [122] It is important when discussing social support to always consider the possibility that the social support system is actually an antagonistic influence on an individual. [30]
There are two dominant hypotheses addressing the link between social support and health: the buffering hypothesis and the direct effects hypothesis. [65] The main difference between these two hypotheses is that the direct effects hypothesis predicts that social support is beneficial all the time, while the buffering hypothesis predicts that social support is mostly beneficial during stressful times. Evidence has been found for both hypotheses. [14]
In the buffering hypothesis, social support protects (or "buffers") people from the bad effects of stressful life events (e.g., death of a spouse, job loss). [65] Evidence for stress buffering is found when the correlation between stressful events and poor health is weaker for people with high social support than for people with low social support. The weak correlation between stress and health for people with high social support is often interpreted to mean that social support has protected people from stress. Stress buffering is more likely to be observed for perceived support than for social integration [65] or received support. [20] The theoretical concept or construct of resiliency is associated with coping theories.
In the direct effects (also called main effects) hypothesis, people with high social support are in better health than people with low social support, regardless of stress. [65] In addition to showing buffering effects, perceived support also shows consistent direct effects for mental health outcomes. [69] Both perceived support and social integration show main effects for physical health outcomes. [26] However, received (enacted) support rarely shows main effects. [20] [26]
Several theories have been proposed to explain social support's link to health. Stress and coping social support theory [20] [65] [117] [120] dominates social support research [123] and is designed to explain the buffering hypothesis described above. According to this theory, social support protects people from the bad health effects of stressful events (i.e., stress buffering) by influencing how people think about and cope with the events. An example in 2018 are the effects of school shootings on the well-being and future of children and children's health. According to stress and coping theory, [124] events are stressful insofar as people have negative thoughts about the event (appraisal) and cope ineffectively. Coping consists of deliberate, conscious actions such as problem solving or relaxation. As applied to social support, stress and coping theory suggests that social support promotes adaptive appraisal and coping. [65] [120] Evidence for stress and coping social support theory is found in studies that observe stress buffering effects for perceived social support. [65] One problem with this theory is that, as described previously, stress buffering is not seen for social integration, [125] and that received support is typically not linked to better health outcomes. [20] [26]
Relational regulation theory (RRT) [123] is another theory, which is designed to explain main effects (the direct effects hypothesis) between perceived support and mental health. As mentioned previously, perceived support has been found to have both buffering and direct effects on mental health. [126] RRT was proposed in order to explain perceived support's main effects on mental health which cannot be explained by the stress and coping theory. [123] RRT hypothesizes that the link between perceived support and mental health comes from people regulating their emotions through ordinary conversations and shared activities rather than through conversations on how to cope with stress. This regulation is relational in that the support providers, conversation topics and activities that help regulate emotion are primarily a matter of personal taste. This is supported by previous work showing that the largest part of perceived support is relational in nature. [127]
Life-span theory [26] is another theory to explain the links of social support and health, which emphasizes the differences between perceived and received support. According to this theory, social support develops throughout the life span, but especially in childhood attachment with parents. Social support develops along with adaptive personality traits such as low hostility, low neuroticism, high optimism, as well as social and coping skills. Together, support and other aspects of personality ("psychological theories") influence health largely by promoting health practices (e.g., exercise and weight management) and by preventing health-related stressors (e.g., job loss, divorce). Evidence for life-span theory includes that a portion of perceived support is trait-like, [127] and that perceived support is linked to adaptive personality characteristics and attachment experiences. [26] Lifespan theories are popular from their origins in Schools of Human Ecology at the universities, aligned with family theories, and researched through federal centers over decades (e.g., University of Kansas, Beach Center for Families; Cornell University, School of Human Ecology).
Of the Big Five personality traits, agreeableness is associated with people receiving the most social support and having the least-strained relationships at work and home. Receiving support from a supervisor in the workplace is associated with alleviating tensions both at work and at home, as are inter-dependency and idiocentrism of an employee. [128]
Many studies have tried to identify biopsychosocial pathways for the link between social support and health. Social support has been found to positively impact the immune, neuroendocrine, and cardiovascular systems. [129] Although these systems are listed separately here, evidence has shown that these systems can interact and affect each other. [26]
Though many benefits have been found, not all research indicates positive effects of social support on these systems. [14] For example, sometimes the presence of a support figure can lead to increased neuroendocrine and physiological activity. [34]
Social support groups can be a source of informational support, by providing valuable educational information, and emotional support, including encouragement from people experiencing similar circumstances. [135] [136] Studies have generally found beneficial effects for social support group interventions for various conditions, [137] including Internet support groups. [138] These groups may be termed "self help" groups in nation-states, may be offered by non-profit organizations, and in 2018, may be paid for as part of governmental reimbursement schemes. According to Drebing, previous studies have shown that those going to support groups later show enhanced social support... in regard to groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and Narcotics Anonymous (NA), were shown to have a positive correlation with participation in their subsequent groups and abstaining from their addiction. [139] Because correlation does not equal causation, going to those meeting does not cause one to abstain from divulging back into old habits rather that this been shown to be helpful in establishing sobriety. While many support groups are held where the discussions can be face to face there has been evidence that shows online support offers the same amount of benefits. Coulson found that through discussion forums several benefits can be added such as being able to cope with things and having an overall sense of well-being. [140]
There are both costs and benefits to providing support to others. Providing long-term care or support for someone else is a chronic stressor that has been associated with anxiety, depression, alterations in the immune system, and increased mortality. [141] [142] Thus, family caregivers and "university personnel" alike have advocated for both respite or relief, and higher payments related to ongoing, long-term care giving. However, providing support has also been associated with health benefits. In fact, providing instrumental support to friends, relatives, and neighbors, or emotional support to spouses has been linked to a significant decrease in the risk for mortality. [143] Researchers found that within couples where one has been diagnosed with breast cancer, not only does the spouse with the illness benefit from the provision and receipt of support but so does the spouse with no illness. It was found that the relationship well being was the area that benefited for the spouses of those with breast cancer [144] Also, a recent neuroimaging study found that giving support to a significant other during a distressful experience increased activation in reward areas of the brain. [145]
In 1959 Isabel Menzies Lyth identified that threat to a person's identity in a group where they share similar characteristics develops a defense system inside the group which stems from emotions experienced by members of the group, which are difficult to articulate, cope with and finds solutions to. Together with an external pressure on efficiency, a collusive and injunctive system develops that is resistant to change, supports their activities and prohibit others from performing their major tasks. [146] [147]
Gender differences have been found in social support research. [21] Women provide more social support to others and are more engaged in their social networks. [125] [148] [149] Evidence has also supported the notion that women may be better providers of social support. [125] In addition to being more involved in the giving of support, women are also more likely to seek out social support to deal with stress, especially from their spouses. However, one study indicates that there are no differences in the extent to which men and women seek appraisal, informational, and instrumental types of support. Rather, the big difference lies in seeking emotional support. [150] [151] Additionally, social support may be more beneficial to women. [152] Shelley Taylor and her colleagues have suggested that these gender differences in social support may stem from the biological difference between men and women in how they respond to stress (i.e., flight or fight versus tend and befriend). [149] Married men are less likely to be depressed compared to non-married men after the presence of a particular stressor because men are able to delegate their emotional burdens to their partner, and women have been shown to be influenced and act more in reaction to social context compared to men. [153] It has been found that men's behaviors are overall more asocial, with less regard to the impact their coping may have upon others, and women more prosocial with importance stressed on how their coping affects people around them. [154] [155] This may explain why women are more likely to experience negative psychological problems such as depression and anxiety based on how women receive and process stressors. [153] In general, women are likely to find situations more stressful than males are. It is important to note that when the perceived stress level is the same, men and women have much fewer differences in how they seek and use social support. [150]
Although social support is thought to be a universal resource, cultural differences exist in social support. [21] In many Asian cultures, the person is seen as more of a collective unit of society, whereas Western cultures are more individualistic and conceptualize social support as a transaction in which one person seeks help from another. In more interdependent Eastern cultures, people are less inclined to enlist the help of others. [27] For example, European Americans have been found to call upon their social relationships for social support more often than Asian Americans or Asians during stressful occasions, [156] and Asian Americans expect social support to be less helpful than European Americans. [157] These differences in social support may be rooted in different cultural ideas about social groups. [156] [157] It is important to note that these differences are stronger in emotional support than instrumental support. [27] Additionally, ethnic differences in social support from family and friends have been found. [158]
Cultural differences in coping strategies other than social support also exist. One study shows that Koreans are more likely to report substance abuse than European Americans are. Further, European Americans are more likely to exercise in order to cope than Koreans. Some cultural explanations are that Asians are less likely to seek it from fear of disrupting the harmony of their relationships and that they are more inclined to settle their problems independently and avoid criticism. However, these differences are not found among Asian Americans relative to their Europeans American counterparts. [27]
Different cultures have different ways of social support. [159] In African American households support is limited. Many black mothers raise their children without a male figure. [160] Women struggle with job opportunities due to job biases and racial discrimination. [161] Many Black women face this harsh reality causing them to go through poverty. When there is poverty within home, the main focus is to make sure the bills are paid. Sometimes causing children to play adult roles at a very young age. [162] Women trying to balance the mom and dad role, takes away from the moral support certain kids need. [163]
A mental disorder is an impairment of the mind disrupting normal thinking, feeling, mood, behavior, or social interactions, and accompanied by significant distress or dysfunction. The causes of mental disorders are very complex and vary depending on the particular disorder and the individual. Although the causes of most mental disorders are not fully understood, researchers have identified a variety of biological, psychological, and environmental factors that can contribute to the development or progression of mental disorders. Most mental disorders result in a combination of several different factors rather than just a single factor.
Coping refers to conscious or unconscious strategies used to reduce and manage unpleasant emotions. Coping strategies can be cognitions or behaviors and can be individual or social. To cope is to deal with struggles and difficulties in life. It is a way for people to maintain their mental and emotional well-being. Everybody has ways of handling difficult events that occur in life, and that is what it means to cope. Coping can be healthy and productive, or destructive and unhealthy. It is recommended that an individual cope in ways that will be beneficial and healthy. "Managing your stress well can help you feel better physically and psychologically and it can impact your ability to perform your best."
The diathesis-stress model, also known as the vulnerability–stress model, is a psychological theory that attempts to explain a disorder, or its trajectory, as the result of an interaction between a predispositional vulnerability, the diathesis, and stress caused by life experiences. The term diathesis derives from the Greek term (διάθεσις) for a predisposition or sensibility. A diathesis can take the form of genetic, psychological, biological, or situational factors. A large range of differences exists among individuals' vulnerabilities to the development of a disorder.
Psychological resilience is the ability to cope mentally and emotionally with a crisis, or to return to pre-crisis status quickly.
Neuroticism is a personality trait associated with negative emotions. It is one of the Big Five traits. Individuals with high scores on neuroticism are more likely than average to experience such feelings as anxiety, worry, fear, anger, frustration, envy, jealousy, pessimism, guilt, depressed mood, and loneliness. Such people are thought to respond worse to stressors and are more likely to interpret ordinary situations, such as minor frustrations, as appearing hopelessly difficult. Their behavioral responses may include procrastination, substance use, and other maladaptive behaviors, which may temporarily aid in relieving negative emotions and generating positive ones.
Rumination is the focused attention on the symptoms of one's mental distress. In 1998, Nolen-Hoeksema proposed the Response Styles Theory, which is the most widely used conceptualization model of rumination. However, other theories have proposed different definitions for rumination. For example, in the Goal Progress Theory, rumination is conceptualized not as a reaction to a mood state, but as a "response to failure to progress satisfactorily towards a goal". According to multiple studies, rumination is a mechanism that develops and sustains psychopathology conditions such as anxiety, depression, and other negative mental disorders. There are some defined models of rumination, mostly interpreted by the measurement tools. Multiple tools exist to measure ruminative thoughts. Treatments specifically addressing ruminative thought patterns are still in the early stages of development.
Positive affectivity (PA) is a human characteristic that describes how much people experience positive affects ; and as a consequence how they interact with others and with their surroundings.
In psychology, posttraumatic growth (PTG) is positive psychological change experienced as a result of struggling with highly challenging, highly stressful life circumstances. These circumstances represent significant challenges to the adaptive resources of the individual, and pose significant challenges to the individual's way of understanding the world and their place in it. Posttraumatic growth involves "life-changing" psychological shifts in thinking and relating to the world and the self, that contribute to a personal process of change, that is deeply meaningful.
Social undermining is the expression of negative emotions directed towards a particular person or negative evaluations of the person as a way to prevent the person from achieving their goals.
Psychological hardiness, alternatively referred to as personality hardiness or cognitive hardiness in the literature, is a personality style first introduced by Suzanne C. Kobasa in 1979. Kobasa described a pattern of personality characteristics that distinguished managers and executives who remained healthy under life stress, as compared to those who developed health problems. In the following years, the concept of hardiness was further elaborated in a book and a series of research reports by Salvatore Maddi, Kobasa and their graduate students at the University of Chicago.
In psychology, stress is a feeling of emotional strain and pressure. Stress is a form of psychological and mental discomfort. Small amounts of stress may be beneficial, as it can improve athletic performance, motivation and reaction to the environment. Excessive amounts of stress, however, can increase the risk of strokes, heart attacks, ulcers, and mental illnesses such as depression and also aggravate pre-existing conditions.
Minority stress describes high levels of stress faced by members of stigmatized minority groups. It may be caused by a number of factors, including poor social support and low socioeconomic status; well understood causes of minority stress are interpersonal prejudice and discrimination. Indeed, numerous scientific studies have shown that when minority individuals experience a high degree of prejudice, this can cause stress responses that accrue over time, eventually leading to poor mental and physical health. Minority stress theory summarizes these scientific studies to explain how difficult social situations lead to chronic stress and poor health among minority individuals.
Social stress is stress that stems from one's relationships with others and from the social environment in general. Based on the appraisal theory of emotion, stress arises when a person evaluates a situation as personally relevant and perceives that they do not have the resources to cope or handle the specific situation.
Scholarly studies have investigated the effects of religion on health. The World Health Organization (WHO) discerns four dimensions of health, namely physical, social, mental, and spiritual health. Having a religious belief may have both positive and negative impacts on health and morbidity.
Self-concealment is a psychological construct defined as "a predisposition to actively conceal from others personal information that one perceives as distressing or negative". Its opposite is self-disclosure.
The effects of climate change on mental health and wellbeing are being documented as the consequences of climate change become more tangible and impactful. This is especially the case for vulnerable populations and those with pre-existing serious mental illness. There are three broad pathways by which these effects can take place: directly, indirectly or via awareness. The direct pathway includes stress-related conditions caused by exposure to extreme weather events. These include post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Scientific studies have linked mental health to several climate-related exposures. These include heat, humidity, rainfall, drought, wildfires and floods. The indirect pathway can be disruption to economic and social activities. An example is when an area of farmland is less able to produce food. The third pathway can be of mere awareness of the climate change threat, even by individuals who are not otherwise affected by it. This especially manifests in the form of anxiety over the quality of life for future generations.
The shift-and-persist model has emerged in order to account for unintuitive, positive health outcomes in some individuals of low socioeconomic status. A large body of research has previously linked low socioeconomic status to poor physical and mental health outcomes, including early mortality. Low socioeconomic status is hypothesized to get "under the skin" by producing chronic activation of the sympathetic nervous system and hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis, which increases allostatic load, leading to the pathogenesis of chronic disease. However, some individuals of low socioeconomic status do not appear to experience the expected, negative health effects associated with growing up in poverty. To account for this, the shift-and-persist model proposes that, as children, some individuals of low socioeconomic status learn adaptive strategies for regulating their emotions ("shifting") and focusing on their goals ("persisting") in the face of chronic adversity. According to this model, the use of shift-and-persist strategies diminishes the typical negative effects of adversity on health by leading to more adaptive biological, cognitive, and behavioral responses to daily stressors.
There is empirical evidence of the causal impact of social relationships on health. The social support theory suggests that relationships might promote health especially by promoting adaptive behavior or regulating the stress response. Troubled relationships as well as loneliness and social exclusion may have negative consequences on health. Neurosciences of health investigate the neuronal circuits implicated in the context of both social connection and disconnection.
The psychological impact of discrimination on health refers to the cognitive pathways through which discrimination impacts mental and physical health in members of marginalized, subordinate, and low-status groups. Research on the relation between discrimination and health became a topic of interest in the 1990s, when researchers proposed that persisting racial/ethnic disparities in health outcomes could potentially be explained by racial/ethnic differences in experiences with discrimination. Although the bulk of the research tend to focus on the interactions between interpersonal discrimination and health, researchers studying discrimination and health in the United States have proposed that institutional discrimination and cultural racism also give rise to conditions that contribute to persisting racial and economic health disparities.
In social psychology, social buffering is a phenomenon where social connections can alleviate negative consequences of stressful events.
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