Social Support Providers: Who Are They? Where Are They Met? and the Relationship of Network Characteristics to Psychological Distress

Abstract

An important concept that has gained the widespread attention of community mental health practitioners and researchers has been social support networks, and their role in help-seeking behavior and remediating personal distress. Despite the plethora of social support research in the last decade, several questions remain: Who are these natural providers of support and comfort? Where are they met? What is the relationship of network characteristics to the psychological well-being of the helped person? Are there gender and racial differences in answering these questions? To address these questions, randomly selected adults (n = 361) living in one of three suburban communities in southern California provided responses to a standardized measure of psychological distress, and also, named those persons on whom they depended when personal problems arose. Same-sex friends and members of the respondent's immediate family were cited most often as sources of social support. Respondents depended more often on women than on men, and on persons of similar age and racial background. Support providers were met most often in such public institutions as school, workplace, and church. Most network members were viewed as mutually dependent, seen on a daily basis, and were known 6 years or more. Of the network characteristics, only reciprocity was significantly and negatively-related to personal distress. For nonwhites, the number of friends and neighbors named as network members was significantly and positively related to psychological distress, whereas for whites, the relationship was nonsignificant. Results are discussed in relation to social support research and the broader field of social psychology.