Social support and occupational stress: A causal analysis

Abstract

This study is aimed at gaining insight into the role of social support provided by coworkers and supervisors in the reduction of job-stress. It is emphasized that, despite the inclusion of social support as an important variable in theoretical models of job stress, research on this issue is plagued by a lack of conceptual clarity, disagreement on definitions, and divergent operationalizations. Furthermore, there is little strong empirical evidence for the role of social support in alleviating job stress. Moreover, because of the use of cross-sectional designs, causal interpretations are often impossible. In this study, an attempt was made to assess the causal direction of the relationships between social support, stressors and strains, by employing a longitudinal panel design and LISREL analysis. Subjects consisted of 2034 employees of 21 Dutch companies from the eastern part of the Netherlands. All filled out a questionnaire on organizational stress and social support, and underwent a medical examination. Parts of the sample participated in two follow-up measurements. The results showed that individuals from the highest occupational levels as well as those from the lowest perceived less social support than other individuals. Furthermore, the respondents consistently reported that coworkers provide more support than supervisors. Only in the group with the lower occupational level did social support have a causal effect upon most stressors, indicating that social support indeed reduces role ambiguity, role overload, role conflict and job future uncertainty. However, there was not much evidence for a causal effect of social support by the coworkers upon the stressors. In addition, in both occupational groups, social support by the supervisor was not at all correlated with, and did not have a causal effect upon, the objective health indices. The evidence for causal effects of social support by the supervisor upon subjective strains was also limited. Remarkably, strains did have causal effects upon social support by the coworkers, and not vice versa. These results suggest that the relationships with colleagues are influenced negatively by the strains experienced by individuals. In the discussion, the need for more fine grained theoretical and empirical analyses of social support is emphasized, as is the necessity of taking into account the complex interpersonal environment in which social supportive exchanges take place.