Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-5f56664f6-2gss9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-05-07T16:21:01.576Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Social support and health

from Psychology, health and illness

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2014

By
Thomas A. Wills  and
Michael G. Ainette
Edited by
Susan Ayers ,
Andrew Baum ,
Chris McManus ,
Stanton Newman ,
Kenneth Wallston ,
John Weinman  and
Robert West
Thomas A. Wills
Affiliation:
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Michael G. Ainette
Affiliation:
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Susan Ayers
Affiliation:
University of Sussex
Andrew Baum
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh
Chris McManus
Affiliation:
St Mary's Hospital Medical School
Stanton Newman
Affiliation:
University College and Middlesex School of Medicine
Kenneth Wallston
Affiliation:
Vanderbilt University School of Nursing
John Weinman
Affiliation:
United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy's and St Thomas's
Robert West
Affiliation:
St George's Hospital Medical School, University of London
Get access

Summary

Social support and health

This chapter discusses the relation of social support to health outcomes. We consider approaches to the conceptualization of social support and discuss findings on the relation of social support to onset, progression or recovery from chronic illnesses which are major sources of mortality. An emphasis is on understanding physiological and behavioural mechanisms through which social support is related to health status. In a final section we summarize developments in this area, note current debates and suggest directions for clinical research.

Conceptualization and measurement of social support

There are two major approaches to conceptualizing social variables related to health. The structural approach focuses on assessing the structure of a person's network of social connections. In a typical network assessment the respondent is asked to name persons with whom he/she has a connection, typically including questions about spouse, family, friends, neighbours and workmates. Network assessments may also include questions about membership of community organizations (e.g. churches, professional or service organizations, fraternal organizations) and participation in sports, cultural activities and leisure/recreational activities. A score for network size is based on the total number of connections a person has; a score for social integration is based on the total number of different roles a person has in the community; and a score termed ‘social participation’ is based on the total amount of participation in activities that involve other people. These indices are taken to represent the extent of a person's integration in the community (Cohen, Underwood & Gottlieb, 2000).

Type
Chapter
Information
Cambridge Handbook of Psychology, Health and Medicine , pp. 202 - 207
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Angerer, P.,Siebert, U.,Kothny, W.et al. (2000). Impact of social support, cynical hostility, and anger expression on progression of coronary atherosclerosis. Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 36, 1781–8.Google Scholar
Berkman, L. F.,Glass, T.,Brissette, I. & Seeman, T. E. (2000). From social integration to health. Social Science and Medicine, 51, 843–57.Google Scholar
Berkman, L. F.,Leo-Summers, L. & Horwitz, R. I. (1992). Emotional support and survival after myocardial infarction: a prospective, population-based study of the elderly. Annals of Internal Medicine, 117, 1003–9.Google Scholar
Brummett, B. H.,Barefoot, J. C.,Siegler, I. E.et al. (2001). Characteristics of socially isolated patients with coronary artery disease who are at elevated risk for mortality. Psychosomatic Medicine, 63, 267–72.Google Scholar
Cohen, S., (2004). Social relationships and health. American Psychologist, 59, 676–84.Google Scholar
Cohen, S.,Underwood, L. G. & Gottlieb, B. H. (Eds.) (2000). Social support measurement and intervention: a guide for health and social scientists. New York: Oxford University Press.
Cohen, S. & Wills, T. A. (1985). Stress, social support, and the buffering hypothesis. Psychological Bulletin, 98, 310–57.Google Scholar
Dickens, E. N.,McGowan, L.,Percival, C.et al. (2004). Lack of a close confidant predicts further cardiac events after myocardial infarction. Heart, 90, 518–22.Google Scholar
DiMatteo, M. R. (2004). Social support and patient adherence to medical treatment: a meta-analysis. Health Psychology, 23, 207–18.Google Scholar
Falk, A.,Hanson, B. S.,Isacsson, S.-O. & Ostergren, P.-O. (1992). Job strain and mortality in elderly men: social network, support, and influence as buffers. American Journal of Public Health, 82, 1136–9.Google Scholar
Helgeson, V.S., Cohen, S. & Fritz, H. (1998). Social ties and cancer. In Holland, J. (Ed.). Psycho-oncology (pp. 99–109). London: Oxford University Press.
Helgeson, V.S., Cohen, S., Schulz, R. & Yasko, J. (2001). Group support interventions for people with cancer: benefits and hazards. In Baum, A. & Andersen, B. L. (Eds.). Psychosocial interventions for cancer (pp. 269–86). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Hogan, B. E.,Linden, W. & Najarian, B. (2002). Social support interventions: do they work?Clinical Psychology Review, 22, 381–440.Google Scholar
Horsten, M.,Mittleman, M. A.,Wamala, S. P.,Scheck-Gustafsson, K. & Orth-Gomer, K. (1999). Social relations and the metabolic syndrome in middle-aged Swedish women. Journal of Cardiovascular Risk, 6, 391–7.Google Scholar
Kawachi, I.,Kennedy, B. P.,Lochner, K. & Prothrow-Stith, D. (1997). Social capital, income inequality, and mortality. American Journal of Public Health, 87, 1491–8.Google Scholar
Kiecolt-Glaser, J. K.,McGuire, L.,Robles, T. F. & Glaser, R. (2002). Emotions, morbidity, and mortality: new perspectives from psychoneuroimmunology. Annual Review of Psychology, 53, 83–107.Google Scholar
Leserman, J.,Petitto, J. M.,Gu, H.et al. (2002). Progression to AIDS, a clinical AIDS condition and mortality: psychosocial and physiological predictors. Psychological Medicine, 32, 1059–73.Google Scholar
Linden, W.,Chambers, L.,Maurice, J. & Lenz, J. W. (1993). Sex differences in social support, self-deception, hostility, and ambulatory cardiovascular activity. Health Psychology, 12, 376–80.Google Scholar
Lutgendorf, S. K.,Johnsen, E. L.,Cooper, B.et al. (2002). Vascular endothelial growth factor and social support in patients with ovarian carcinoma. Cancer, 95, 808–15.Google Scholar
Palmer, S. C.,Coyne, J. C.,Spiegel, D. & Giese-Davis, J. (2004). Examining the evidence that psychotherapy improves the survival of cancer patients. Biological Psychiatry, 56, 61–4.Google Scholar
Raikkonen, K.,Matthews, K. A. & Kuller, L. H. (2001). Trajectory of psychological risk and incident hypertension in middle-aged women. Hypertension, 38, 798–802.Google Scholar
Rosengren, A.,Orth-Gomer, K.,Wedel, H. & Wilhelmsen, L. (1993). Stressful life events, social support, and mortality in men born in 1933. British Medical Journal, 307, 1102–5.Google Scholar
Rozanski, A.,Blumenthal, J. A. & Kaplan, J. (1999). Impact of psychological factors on the pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease. Circulation, 99, 2192–217.Google Scholar
Schnorpfeil, P.,Noll, A.,Schulze, R.et al. (2003). Allostatic load and work conditions. Social Science and Medicine, 57, 647–56.Google Scholar
Steptoe, A.,Owen, N.,Kunz-Ebrecht, S. R. & Brydon, L. (2004). Loneliness and neuroendocrine, cardiovascular, and inflammatory stress responses in middle-aged men and women. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 29, 593–611.Google Scholar
Stone, A. A.,Mezzacappa, E. S.,Donatone, B. A. & Gonder, M. (1999). Stress and social support associated with prostate-specific antigen levels in men. Health Psychology, 18, 482–6.Google Scholar
Turner-Cobb, J. M.,Sephton, S. E.,Koopman, C.,Blake-Mortimer, J. & Spiegel, D. (2000). Social support and salivary cortisol in women with metastatic breast cancer. Psychosomatic Medicine, 62, 337–45.Google Scholar
Uchino, B. N. (2004). Social support and physical health: Understanding the health consequences of relationships. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Williams, R.,Barefoot, J.,Califf, R.et al. (1992). Prognostic importance of social resources among patients with CAD. Journal of the American Medical Association, 267, 520–4.Google Scholar
Wills, T. A. & Cleary, S. D. (1996). How are social support effects mediated? A test for parental support and adolescent substance use. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 937–52.Google Scholar
Wills, T. A. & Filer, M. (2001). Social networks and social support. In Baum, A., Revenson, T. A. & Singer, J. E. (Eds.). Handbook of health psychology (pp. 209–34). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×