Defining HIV-Related Social Support: What Types of Social Support Do People With HIV Need?

The present research investigates whether various types of support are distinguishable from each other, and assesses whether the stress/outcome relationship depends on the type and/or source of support. In two separate vignette studies, both the type of support (emotional, instrumental, informational, appraisal) and its source (family, friends, boyfriend, or professor) were manipulated. In both studies respondents distinguished between instrumental, informational, and appraisal support, and they also perceived these types of support as emotional in content. The type of support, but not its source, was perceived by respondents as being important for predicting outcome. Comparing subjects' ratings of perceived outcome across types of support, it was found that subjects in the informational condition predicted the most positive outcome. However, since subjects perceived that informational support was also emotional, it is concluded that it is the perceived combination of informational and emotional support that is most effective in buffering any negative outcome of stress. Implications for the construct validity of social support, and for future research using the social support construct, are discussed. One frequently debated issue concerning the conceptualization of social support is whether or not there are distinguishable types of support. Determining whether social support is a global construct or comprised of distinguishable types has implications for understanding the influence of social support on stress/outcome relationships. A second area of disagreement is whether the source of social support affects its influence on stress/outcome relationships. There continues to be disagreement concerning the conceptualization of social support, primarily because most research employs a non-experimental methodology which confounds various types and sources of support. When social support is conceptualized in terms of specific types, the number and nature of such categorizations are inconsistent. For example, Gottlieb (1978) delineates five different types of social support: emotional, sustaining behaviour, indirect personal influence, problem-solving behaviour, and environmental action on the individual's behalf. Abdel-Halim (1982) suggests that there are two types of social support: emotional and instrumental. Barrera and Ainley (1983) identify six types of social support: material aid, behavioural assistance, intimate interaction, guidance, feedback, and positive social interaction.

Research on social support and job satisfaction has yielded mixed results, partly because studies have rarely examined different types of workplace social support, such as collegial support, task support, coaching, and career mentoring. This study identified the relative contributions of different types of social support to job satisfaction and explored the relationship between social support and job tenure. Overall, social support accounted for approximately 17% of the variance in job satisfaction and 9% of the variance in job tenure. Career mentoring and task support were the types of social support most predictive of job satisfaction. Coaching and task support were the types of social support most predictive of job tenure.

Sports participation is important for promoting lifelong health and well-being. However, it often declines during adolescence, highlighting the need to understand the factors related to adolescent sports participation. This prospective study examines the associations between different sources (e.g., family, peers, coaches, teachers) and types (e.g., emotional, instrumental, co-participation) of social support and hours of organized sports participation among secondary school students (N = 294). It also explores whether these associations change from the second to the third year of secondary education. Data were collected using questionnaires and anthropometric measurements in October/November 2021 and October/November 2022. Multilevel linear fixed effects regression models were used to analyze relationships between sources and types of social support and sports participation. Additionally, scatterplots illustrated individual variability in these associations. Results showed significant associations for various sources and types of social support with organized sports participation. Social support from teammates and coaches and instrumental support emerged as the strongest predictors of hours of participation. Additionally, we found that the relationships remained stable over time. Yet, substantial individual variability in how social support related to sports participation was also observed. These findings emphasize the importance to promote social support from within the sports environment and to encourage instrumental support. Tailored approaches addressing individual differences are recommended to enhance adolescent sports participation.

BackgroundDespite the importance of social support in promoting physical activity, little is known about the relative influence of the type or source of social support on adolescent girls' physical activity and sedentary behaviors. This study examined the associations of two types of social support (social participation in and social encouragement for physical activity) and two social support sources (family and friends) with self-reported daily minutes of physical activity and sedentary behavior among sixth-grade girls in Texas.MethodsA secondary analysis of 718 sixth-grade girls between the ages of 10 to 14 was performed using cross-sectional baseline data from an osteoporosis prevention intervention study. Physical activity and sedentary behaviors (television-video viewing and computer-video game playing) were assessed using 3 administrations of the Self-Administered Physical Activity Checklist; social support indicators were assessed with Likert-type items from a psychosocial questionnaire.ResultsIn multiple linear regression analyses, friend physical activity participation (partial correlation coefficient (r) = 0.10, p = .009) and friend (r = 0.12) and family encouragement (r = 0.11) (p < .01, respectively) were positively related to moderate-to-vigorous physical activity in the full model with other support variables, BMI and ethnicity; friend encouragement was the only variable positively related to vigorous physical activity (r = 0.11, p = .005). Family participation in physical activity had the strongest negative correlation with total minutes of television-video viewing and computer-video playing (r = -0.08, p < .05).ConclusionFindings lend support to the importance of social support for physical activity among adolescent girls but suggest that the source and type of social support may differ for physical activity and sedentary behaviors. Further research is needed to assess the causal or reciprocal relation between the roles of friends and family in promoting physical activity and of family physical activity in decreasing sedentary behaviors among early adolescent girls.

Trends in psychological research suggest an increasing interest in indicators of well-being in youth, such as overall life satisfaction (LS). Studies indicate a strong association between LS and social support from different sources within an early adolescent’s social network. However, the unique contributions of specific types of supportive behaviors (within sources of social support) as they relate to development of early adolescent global LS have been largely overlooked. Thus, we examined the unique contributions of sources and types (i.e., emotional, appraisal, informational, instrumental) within three sources of support (i.e., parent, teacher, peer) to global LS in a sample of 1732 middle school students from four schools in a southeastern U.S. state. We also investigated gender as a potential moderator between social support sources and types within sources and LS. After controlling for age and socioeconomic status, multiple regression analyses demonstrated unique differences between social support types within sources for each social support source, apart from appraisal support, which was not found to be statistically significant within any source of support. Notably, no statistically significant interaction was demonstrated between gender and social support source or between gender and social support types within each source of social support. Such findings inform assessments and interventions aimed at improving youth LS.

This cross-sectional study examined how three types of social support-social participation, emotional support, and caregiving support-were related to depressive symptoms in wives caring for their elderly husband and daughters caring for their elderly parent. We investigated whether different dimensions of social support affect mental health via different mechanisms and whether the context in which the support is needed and received will temper its effects. We found that social participation had a main effect on depressive symptoms for daughters but not for wives. Emotional support buffered the stress emanating from the husband's behavior problems for wives. For daughters, emotional support buffered the stress emanating from both the behavior problems and the ADL/IADL limitations of the parent care recipient. Using caregiving as the example, our data suggested that social support does not have uniform effects; rather, the type of stressor, the type of social support, and the individual context interact to result in the specific effect of support.

The measurement of social support in the ‘European research on incapacitating diseases and social support’: The development of the Social Support Questionnaire for Transactions (SSQT)

To explore the association between self-efficacy and self-management by modelling three types of social support as mediators among stroke high-risk populations. Self-efficacy and social support (i.e. objective support, subjective support and support utilisation) are important for self-management among stroke high-risk populations. Self-efficacy activates three types of social support, and the effect of social support on self-management varies by types among chronic patients. Therefore, social support may act as a mediator between self-efficacy and self-management, and the mediating role may vary by types of social support. Disentangling the role of these different types of social support can guide tailored interventions. A cross-sectional study. This study was conducted among 448 Chinese adults at high risk for stroke. Self-efficacy, self-management and social support were assessed using the Self-Efficacy Scale, the Stroke Self-management Scale and the Social Support Rating Scale respectively. The PROCESS SPSS Macro version 3.3, model 4 was used to explore the mediating role of different types of social support in the relationship between self-efficacy and self-management. This study followed STROBE checklist for cross-sectional studies (Appendix S1). Self-efficacy improved three types of social support, and subjective support and support utilisation promoted self-management, but objective support hindered self-management. The specific indirect effect of objective support and subjective support was significant but not that of support utilisation. Objective support, subjective support and support utilisation attenuated the total effect of self-efficacy on self-management by -23.8%, 23.8% and 7.7% respectively. Mediating effect of social support in the relationship between self-efficacy and self-management varies by type, and the positive effect of subjective support is offset by the detrimental effect of objective support. Among stroke high-risk populations, interventions should target objective support and subjective support as well as self-efficacy to efficiently improve their self-management.

The Role of Social Network and Support in Mental Health Service Use: Findings From the Baltimore ECA Study

The Interaction of Social Support and Functional Status on the Dietary Quality of Elderly Women

One type of social support is social activity. Most older adults engage in some form of social activity with network members, either in person or by telephone, especially during an episode of an acute illness. Informational support (one type of functional social support) provides an individual with the necessary knowledge and skills to resolve various problems and stressful situations. This support is provided by members and for members within a social network. The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of social activity, a component of informational support, on postinjury functional status following a hip fracture in women 65 years of age and older. A cross-sectional exploratory study was conducted to examine the relationship between informational support and postinjury functional status in older women recovering from hip fracture. A correlational design was used to examine the relationships among an older woman's individual characteristics, social activity-informational support, and postinjury functional status. The sample was obtained from two community hospitals containing subacute units and a geriatric center with a short stay rehabilitation unit. Over half of the respondents were interviewed in their homes (55%); the remaining were interviewed either at a hospital subacute unit (33%), geriatric rehabilitation center (11%), or while living with a family member (1%). Instruments used in this study included: (a) Pfeiffer's Short Portable Mental Status Questionnaire, (b) the instrumental activities of daily living and a modified version of physical activities of daily living subscales from the OARS Multidimensional Functional Assessment Questionnaire, (c) the modified Informational Support subscale in the Inventory of Socially Supportive Behaviors version, and (d) individual characteristics (age, marital status, education, income, living arrangement, preinjury functional status, time since injury, number of postoperative complications, length of hospital stay, and discharge destination). A convenience sample of 73 respondents were interviewed. Results indicated that: (a) time since injury predicted informational support, and (b) preinjury functional status (FS), time since injury, and informational support predicted postinjury FS. This is the first study to examine the influence of informational support on postinjury functional status in older women recovering from a hip fracture. The results support an important relationship between informational support and postinjury functional status. Future studies are needed to explore how informational support from health care providers, family, friends, and community can improve the recovery process and to assist the interdisciplinary team in designing therapeutic interventions that promote informational support in hip fracture patients.

This study sought to examine how perceived social support changes over time for U.S. veterans and how social support relates to their mental health longitudinally. Data from a nationally representative sample of 783 low-income U.S. veterans in 2021-2023 were analyzed to examine changes and correlates of four different types of social support (Emotional/Informational Support, Tangible Support, Affectionate Support and Positive Social Interaction) over 1 year. Weighted logistic mixed models were conducted. The majority of veterans reported no change in their level of perceived social support, but about 18%-26% reported either an increase or decrease (about evenly split about increase/decrease) in their perceived level of one of the four types of social support. High levels of the four types of social support were associated with being married and a lower likelihood of screening positive for depression. Other differential associations were found between sociodemographic characteristics and some types of social support. These findings confirm the value of assessing perceived social support among veterans with low socioeconomic status who may have mental health issues.

Previous research has demonstrated relationships of social support with disease-related biomarkers in patients with ovarian cancer. However, the clinical relevance of these findings to patient outcomes has not been established. This prospective study examined how social support relates to long-term survival among consecutive patients with ovarian cancer. We focused on two types of social support: social attachment, a type of emotional social support reflecting connections with others, and instrumental social support reflecting the availability of tangible assistance. Patients were prospectively recruited during a presurgical clinic visit and completed surveys before surgery. One hundred sixty-eight patients with histologically confirmed epithelial ovarian cancer were observed from the date of surgery until death or December 2010. Clinical information was obtained from medical records. In a Cox regression model, adjusting for disease stage, grade, histology, residual disease, and age, greater social attachment was associated with a lower likelihood of death (hazard ratio [HR], 0.87; 95% CI, 0.77 to 0.98; P = .018). The median survival time for patients with low social attachment categorized on a median split of 15 was 3.35 years (95% CI, 2.56 to 4.15 years). In contrast, by study completion, 59% of patients with high social attachment were still alive after 4.70 years. No significant association was found between instrumental social support and survival, even after adjustment for covariates. Social attachment is associated with a survival advantage for patients with ovarian cancer. Clinical implications include the importance of screening for deficits in the social environment and consideration of support activities during adjuvant treatment.

Phonefriend: A developmental description of needs expressed by child callers to a community telephone support system for children

Objectives The present study aimed to investigate the certain type of significant social support in the relationship between mental state with burnout and negative discipline among infant teachers. Methods Total of 222 infant teachers participated in the study and answered the job burnout, negative discipline, and social support. The data was analyzed and identified the internal coefficient for reliabilities of research variables. Frequency analysis was conducted to examine the demographic characteristics of infant teachers. In addition, Pearson's correlation analysis was conducted to confirm the relationship among variables. In order to confirm the mediating role of social support type in the relationship bettwen burnout of infant teachers and negative discipline, the mediational path test was conducted with parallel mediation model by using SPSS Process V4.1. Results A statistically significant positive correlation between burnout and negative discipline was found out. Four types of social support, burnout, and negative discipline were all negatively correlated. The test for parallel mediation model showed the only significant pathway via evaluational social support from burnout to negative discipline while not significant ones via emotional, materials, informational support. Conclusions In order to find out how to alleviate the burnout of infant teachers and prevent negative discipline, the mediating effect of each type of social support was verified. As a result, the evaluational social support showed a significant effect on negative discipline with burnout. Based on this findings, the evaluation support could be considered as intervention strategy to prevent burnout and negative discipline among infant teachers. Further study and limitation of the present study were addressed.