Esteem Support Research Articles

Precursors to probation and parole agent intent to send informational, emotional, and esteem social support messages to female clients

ABSTRACTSupervising agents serve as sources of social support for over one million women in the US on probation and parole who strive to avoid recidivism. Little is known about the supportive messages agents intend to provide their female clients or their precursors. The optimal matching model of social support is used in an investigation of the precursors to agents’ intent to send different types of social support messages to the women they supervise. Results indicated that supervising agents intended to provide informational support in the form of suggestions or advice, esteem support in the form of compliments, and emotional support in the form of encouragement to the women. Both agent communication pattern and offender level variables were precursors to the intent to send informational support messages, but only agent communication pattern variables predicted the intent to send emotional support messages.

Hystersisters: messages of social support in an online health support group for women

ABSTRACTBackground: Online social support groups have become a popular source of health information for patients and the comments exchanged there can be regarded as a kind of social support.Purpose: The aim of this qualitative study was to explore and categorize messages of social support exchanged by hysterectomy patients who visited http://www.hystersisters.com during a six-week period. Two questions were examined: (a) which types of social support are most frequently exchanged on hystersisters.com? and (b) in what ways do women exchange social support on hystersisters.com?Method: A total of 200 messages posted were selected for analysis. Using Cutruna and Suhr’s coding framework and a grounded theory approach, messages were categorized within the coding framework and then analyzed to explore other emerging themes.Results: Findings revealed that informational and emotional support were exchanged most frequently, followed by esteem support, with network and tangible aid as the least frequently exchanged forms of support. Affection and relational support were the most frequently used sub-categories of social support overall, creating a unique sense of community that helped users to transcend their circumstances. Findings also revealed that the sharing of advice and encouragement through personal narratives promoted reciprocal self-disclosure and community-building.Conclusions: Further study should investigate which forms of social support are most effective in health-related online support groups and whether these forms of support result in feelings of self-efficacy, better interactions with health providers, and/or improved health outcomes. Recommendations for practitioners and suggestions for future research are provided.

Two Experiments Testing Order, Interaction, and Absolute Effects of Esteem Support Messages Directed Toward Job Seekers

Two experiments were conducted to extend research on the Cognitive-Emotional Theory of Esteem Support Messages by examining order, interaction, and absolute effects of emotion- and problem-focused esteem support in the context of the job search. Participants were presented with an esteem support message and rated its perceived effects on their job-search state self-esteem and self-efficacy. Study 1 participants ( N = 228) were college students seeking post-graduation employment. Study 2 participants ( N = 268) were adults in the community with experience seeking full-time employment. Results of both studies revealed that a message that addressed the esteem threat and contained problem- or emotion-focused content was rated as more effective than a message that failed to address the esteem threat and contained neither form of content. Mixed-focused messages were rated similarly to messages containing only high emotion-focused content, though some differences between the samples emerged. No order effects were observed in either study.

Online social support group use by breastfeeding mothers: A content analysis

BackgroundBreastfeeding is a public health priority and lack of breastfeeding support a contributing factor to the low initiation and continuation rates in the UK. Online social support groups are being increasingly utilised by breastfeeding mothers and research into this phenomenon is only now emerging. AimTo document and describe the posts made within an online breastfeeding support group. MethodThe posts made to an online breastfeeding social support group between 1st and 7th November 2016 were recorded using an unobtrusive non-participant design, and subject to systematic message content analysis. Themes relating to topics of discussion were deduced from the data and concepts of social support used to analyse the data. ResultsThe group received 501 posts over the week (m = 72, range 20–93 a day) and was accessed 24 hours a day. Eighty-two percent of posts received comments (m = 12, range 0–415, SD = 24) and 93% received likes (m = 11, range = 0–641, SD 42). The group was used from pregnancy and until the child was over two years old. The majority of infants discussed were aged 6 weeks to 6 months. Informational support was the greatest reason for use (65%), followed by esteem support (18%) and emotional support (10%). Thirteen topics of conversations were identified. ConclusionMothers are using online social support groups in their thousands to seek information from people in similar situations. Not only do they pose questions but they discuss a range of parenting and breastfeeding topics in an environment that aims to support and facilitate responses. The impact of this support avenue within the wider context of professional, family and offline support warrants further investigation through a qualitative approach.

Linking motivational climate with moral behavior in youth sport: The role of social support, perspective taking, and moral disengagement.

This study investigated whether motivational climate was associated with prosocial and antisocial behavior in youth athletes directly and indirectly via social support (i.e., emotional and esteem support), perspective taking, and moral disengagement. Two-hundred and seventy-five youth team sport players (156 boys; 119 girls) aged 11 to 16 years completed questionnaires assessing the study variables. Structural equation modelling revealed that mastery climate was positively associated with prosocial teammate behavior both directly and indirectly via social support. Mastery climate was also indirectly associated with prosocial opponent behavior via social support and perspective taking. Mastery climate was negatively associated with antisocial behavior towards opponents and teammates indirectly via social support, perspective taking, and moral disengagement. Performance climate was positively associated with antisocial behavior towards teammates directly and indirectly via moral disengagement: It was also indirectly associated with antisocial behavior towards opponents via moral disengagement. Our findings extend understanding about the variables that might explain relationships between motivational climate and moral conduct in youth athletes. Implications for sport practitioners are considered, especially in relation to approaches that could help foster moral character in young people through sport.

Spousal Support for Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis: Getting the Wrong Kind Is a Pain.

Research indicates that perceived support availability is beneficial, with support available from the spouse particularly important for well-being. However, actual support mobilization has shown mixed associations with recipient well-being. The primary goal of the present study was to go beyond examining the effects of global perceptions of support on recipient outcomes. Instead, we examined the effects of several specific types of support that have been found to be important in the clinical literature. In this study, we followed both members of couples in which one partner was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. Patients provided reports on pain for both mornings and evenings across 1 week. Both partners also reported esteem, solicitous, and negative support mobilization received by the patient. We found that patient pain tended to increase across the day following increases in patient reports of negative support receipt and partner reports of solicitous support provision. We also found that patient pain tended to decrease across the day when partners reported increased levels of esteem support provision. Reverse causation analyses indicated higher levels of patient pain may lead partners to increase solicitous support mobilization to the patient. Findings underscore the importance of examining both partners’ reports of support within a dyadic coping framework. They further suggest that not all forms of support are equally beneficial, calling for a finer grained assessment of specific support transactions.

A meta-analysis of Social Network Site use and social support

Current scholarship knows little about what forms of social support are the major benefits of Social Network Sites (SNSs) use. To solve this problem, this study examined the association of SNSs use and social support by meta-analyzing 73 effects from 31 studies. We also examined several important moderators such as age, gender, and culture. The findings revealed that generic SNS use may be helpful for informational and emotional support, but not for tangible and esteem support. Further moderation analysis demonstrated that SNSs are better set up for online social support, but it also provides offline support benefits. The analyses also showed differences between users who engage in active SNS activities and those who passive consume online content. Moreover, Asians were found to receive more social support via SNS presentation than Europeans and Americans. Older and female students were found to be able to acquire more social support from SNS use.

Relationship of Self Esteem, Personality and Social Support with Psychological Distress in Adolescents

Relationship of Self Esteem, Personality and Social Support with Psychological Distress in Adolescents

Perceived Esteem Support Predicts Competition Appraisals and Performance Satisfaction Among Varsity Athletes: A Test of Organizational Stressors as Moderators

Organizational stressors may be important factors influencing athletes' sport experiences. In this study, we examined organizational stressors as “background variables” (Gump & Matthews, 1999) that may impact athletes' perceptions of support and appraisals of competitive stressors. Perceptions of available esteem support, organizational stressors, competitive appraisals, and performance satisfaction were prospectively examined among varsity team sport athletes (N = 84). Esteem support was positively related to athletes' perceptions of satisfaction with performance, and the indirect effect through secondary appraisal was significant. Two types of organizational stressors moderated the association between esteem support and secondary appraisal: More frequent coaching stressors weakened the association between esteem support and secondary appraisal, whereas more frequent team and culture stressors strengthened the association between esteem support and appraisal. These results support previous research (cf. Freeman & Rees, 2009), indicating that perceived available esteem support was positively associated with athletes' assessments that they had the necessary resources to cope with competitive stressors, which positively predicted performance satisfaction after a competition. Furthermore, these findings suggest that higher levels of coaching stressors were associated with poorer perceptions of having the necessary resources to cope with competition stressors, whereas conversely, higher team and culture stressors were not necessarily detrimental to athletes' perceptions of their resources to cope with competitive demands. These results suggest that different types of organizational stressors may have differential impacts on athletes' sport experiences.

The Dyadic Nature of Self-Evaluations: Self-Esteem and Efficacy Shape and Are Shaped by Support Processes in Relationships

The current research tested an important way one person’s self-evaluations could shape their intimate partner’s self-evaluations. We predicted that greater self-esteem would predict greater efficacy and esteem support when partners needed support, which would facilitate greater efficacy and self-esteem in partners. We examined these processes within discussions in which one partner could provide support (support provider) to the other (support recipient). Study 1 illustrated that self-esteem was specifically associated with esteem support. Study 2 demonstrated that support providers higher in self-esteem experienced greater efficacy during couples’ support discussions and thus delivered greater esteem support to their partners. Greater esteem support, in turn, was associated with recipients experiencing greater efficacy within couples’ discussions and greater self-esteem across time. Analyses of alternative explanations indicated these processes were unique to self-esteem and esteem support. The results provide initial evidence that self-esteem and efficacy shape, and are shaped by, esteem-related support processes within relationships.

Receiving supportive communication from Facebook friends: A model of social ties and supportive communication in social network sites

This study distinguishes perceptions of, preferences for, and outcomes related to people’s social ties online. It expands understanding of when and why using social network sites (SNSs) provides people with several types of supportive communication by integrating users’ social capital and preference for weak tie support. Prior research is synthesized and extended to build a heuristic model of social ties and supportive communication in SNSs that considers network-based variables (i.e., social capital, preference for weak ties) as mechanisms that link the use of SNSs to the supportive messages people receive. A community sample ( N = 553) completed an online questionnaire. Results indicated that intensity of Facebook use corresponds with both social capital and received support. Moreover, social capital mediates and preference for weak ties moderates the relationship between using Facebook and receiving support, and results differ according to the types of social capital and support under consideration. Facebook use, for example, only corresponds with receiving informational and esteem support when users exhibit sufficient preferences for weak tie support.

Social Support Strategies in Online Forums Among Adult Offspring of Parents with Harmful Alcohol Use

ABSTRACTThe authors categorized communication strategies employed to exchange social support (type and person centeredness) in three online forums about parents with harmful drinking. Data included discussion postreplies over 2 months; N = 1,644 units of analysis. Support type categories were identification, emotional, informational, network, and esteem. For person centeredness, most messages were moderate (expressed sympathy, provided distraction), followed by high (helped with feelings), and then low (minimized feelings). Adult offspring of parents with harmful drinking predominantly communicate self-interested forms of support in online forums. Based on principles of supportive communication, esteem support and high person centeredness may enhance social support in these settings.

The Relationship between Emotional and Esteem Social Support Messages and Health

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this investigation is to determine the relative contribution of five types of social support to improved patient health. This analysis suggests that emotional and esteem social support messages are associated with improved patient health as measured by a decrease in average blood glucose levels among diabetic patients. In addition, when two system feature variables, two system use variables, two measures of learning, one measure of self-efficacy, and one measure of affect toward their HCP were added to the baseline model, a third significant factor emerged. Perceptions about learning about diabetes from reading the digital messages sent by their HCP also predicted improved patient health. Cognitive-Emotional Theory of Esteem Support Messages suggests a combination of esteem social support and emotional social support messages enhanced our ability to predict improved patient health by change in patient hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) scores. While a nonrandomized prospective study, this investigation provides support for the notion that provider-patient interaction is related to improved patient health and that both emotional and esteem social support messages play a role in that process. Finally, the study suggests some types of social support are and other types are not associated with improved patient health; this is consistent with the optimal matching hypothesis.

The Influence of Source and Type of Support on College Students' Physical Activity Behavior.

College is a place where students develop health behaviors that persist throughout adulthood, yet a large percentage of students are not engaging in adequate physical activity. Social support is associated with physical activity; however, the effects of source (ie, family and friend) and type (ie, companionship, esteem, and informational) are not fully understood. The current study examined the effects of different sources and types of social support on college students' physical activity behaviors. An online survey tool collected data from 733 college students enrolled at a Mid-Atlantic university. Structural equation models and a repeated-measures analysis of variance were conducted. Support from family and friends was associated with physical activity behaviors; however, support from friends exerted a stronger effect. Students received different types of support from their network, which differentially influenced physical activity behaviors. Students received higher levels of companionship support from their friends and higher levels of esteem support from their family, which was positively associated with physical activity behaviors. Students received higher levels of informational support from their families, which was negatively associated with physical activity behaviors. This study highlights the importance of examining the independent effects of source and type of support on college students' physical activity.

Investigating married adults’ communal coping with genetic health risk and perceived discrimination

ABSTRACTIncreased genetic testing in personalized medicine presents unique challenges for couples, including managing disease risk and potential discrimination as a couple. This study investigated couples’ conflicts and support gaps as they coped with perceived genetic discrimination. We also explored the degree to which communal coping was beneficial in reducing support gaps and ultimately stress. Dyadic analysis of married adults (N = 266, 133 couples), in which one person had the genetic risk for serious illness, showed that perceived discrimination predicted more frequent conflicts about alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency-related treatment, privacy boundaries, and finances, which, in turn, predicted wider gaps in emotion and esteem support, and greater stress for both spouses. Communal coping predicted lower support gaps for both partners and marginally lower stress.

The TASS-Q: The Team-referent Availability of Social Support Questionnaire

ObjectivesTo provide initial evidence for the construct validity of the Team-referent Availability of Social Support Questionnaire (the TASS-Q). DesignCross-sectional in Study 1, and two time points in Study 2. MethodThe preliminary study required participants (N = 47) to assess the content validity—dimensional belonging, understanding, and relevance—of the TASS-Q items. In Study 1, participants (n = 336) completed the TASS-Q and measures of social desirability and negative affectivity. In Study 2, approximately one week before a competition (Day 1, Time 1) participants (n = 413) completed the TASS-Q; approximately 1 h before the same competition (Day 7–9, Time 2) participants completed measures of collective efficacy in relation to the impending competition and team cohesion. ResultsFollowing evidence for the scale content validity of the TASS-Q in the preliminary study, Study 1 provided support for the factor structure of the TASS-Q comprising emotional, esteem, informational, and tangible dimensions. Study 2 provided partial evidence for the factor structure of the TASS-Q and evidence of the criterion-related validity of the measure, demonstrating that (a) team-referent esteem support was a positive predictor of collective efficacy, (b) support dimensions, collectively, explained significant variance in task cohesion dimensions, and (c) emotional support was a positive predictor of social cohesion (group integration—social). ConclusionsThe article provides initial evidence for the construct validity of the TASS-Q and demonstrates, for team-referent social support, the theoretical advantages of examining a multidimensional conceptualisation of perceived availability of social support.

Social Support and Quality of Life for Patients with Depressive Disorders

Background: Depression is recognized as one of the major health threats in the 21st century. It is a maladaptive psychosocial phenomenon that can affect many areas of patients’ lives and have a negative impact on their quality of life (QoL) and social support. Aim of the study: to assess social support and quality of life for patients with depressive disorders. Research design: A descriptive correlational research design was used to achieve the aim of the present study. Sample: A total convenient sample of 100 adult male and female depressed patients was included in the study sample. Setting: This study was carried out at outpatient clinic of Minia Hospital for psychiatric health and addiction. Patients who diagnosed as having organic brain diseases, mentally handicapped, substance abused were excluded from the study. Tools of data collection: The required data was collected through three tools. Socio – demographic Data Sheet, Interpersonal Support Evaluation List (ISEL) and Quality of Life Scale. Results: showed that 66% of depressed patient had low social support, while 50% of the depressed patients had low QOL level and there were statistical significance differences between education levels with QOL. Also, there were positive associations between QoL and social support & all its subscales except self esteem support. Conclusion: The current study showed that the highest percentage of the depressed patients had low social support and QOL. Recommendations: Establishing educational centers and hot lines for family awareness about the importance of social support and quality of life for depressed patients.

Computer-Mediated Social Support for Physical Activity: A Content Analysis.

Online fitness communities are a recent phenomenon experiencing growing user bases. They can be considered as online social networks in which recording, monitoring, and sharing of physical activity (PA) are the most prevalent practices. They have added a new dimension to the social experience of PA in which online peers function as virtual PA partners or supporters. However, research into seeking and receiving computer-mediated social support for PA is scarce. Our aim was to study to what extent using online fitness communities and sharing physical activities with online social networks results in receiving various types of online social support. Two databases, one containing physical activities logged with Strava and one containing physical activities logged with RunKeeper and shared on Twitter, were investigated for occurrence and type of social support, by means of a deductive content analysis. Results indicate that social support delivered through Twitter is not particularly extensive. On Strava, social support is significantly more prevalent. Especially esteem support, expressed as compliments for the accomplishment of an activity, is provided on both Strava and Twitter. The results demonstrate that social media have potential as a platform used for providing social support for PA, but differences among various social network sites can be substantial. Especially esteem support can be expected, in contrast to online health communities, where information support is more common.

The Exchange of Social Support on Online Bariatric Surgery Discussion Forums: A Mixed-Methods Content Analysis

ABSTRACTBariatric surgery patients often experience physical and psychosocial stressors, and difficulty adjusting to significant lifestyle changes. As a result, social support groups that provide patients with support, coping skills, and nutritional information are valuable components of bariatric care. Support group attendance at bariatric centers is associated with greater post-surgery weight loss; however, several barriers hinder attendance at in-person support groups (e.g., travel distance to bariatric centers). Consequently, online support forums are an increasingly utilized resource for patients both before and after surgery. This study examined and described the type and frequency of social support provided on a large online bariatric surgery forum. A total of 1,412 messages in the pre- (n = 822) and post-surgery (n = 590) sections of the forum were coded using qualitative content analysis according to Cutrona and Suhr’s (1992) Social Support Behavior Code model (i.e., including informational, tangible, esteem, network, and emotional support types). The majority of messages provided informational and emotional support regarding: a) factual information about the bariatric procedure and nutrition; b) advice for coping with the surgery preparation process, and physical symptoms; and c) encouragement regarding adherence to surgical guidelines, and weight loss progress. Network, esteem, and tangible support types were less frequent than informational and emotional support types. The results inform healthcare providers about the types of social support available to bariatric patients on online support forums and, thus, encourage appropriate referrals to this resource.

Enacted support and golf-putting performance: The role of support type and support visibility

ObjectivesThis study examined whether the impact of enacted support on performance differed across type (esteem and informational) and visibility (visible and invisible) of support. It further tested whether self-efficacy mediated the enacted support-performance relationship. DesignA one-factor (support manipulation) between subjects experiment. MethodA fellow novice golfer — in reality a confederate — was scripted to randomly provide one of five support manipulations (visible informational support, invisible informational support, visible esteem support, invisible esteem support, and no support) to participants (n = 105). Immediately after, participants completed a self-efficacy measure and then performed a golf-putting task. ResultsThe results demonstrated that participants given visible esteem support significantly outperformed those given no support and those given invisible esteem support. Participants given invisible informational support significantly outperformed those given no support. Although non-significant, the observed mean difference and moderate effect size provided weak evidence that those in the invisible informational support condition may have performed at a higher level than those in the visible informational support condition. There was no evidence that self-efficacy could explain any of these effects. ConclusionThe results suggest that enacted support can benefit novices’ performance and that it is crucial to consider both the type and the visibility of the support. Esteem support is particularly effective when communicated in an explicit and direct manner but informational support appears more effective when communicated in a more subtle, indirect manner.