The Quality of Dyadic Relationships and the Experience of Social Support

Dyadic quality is described as the quality of the relationship between two partners which is dependent on the level of dyadic cohesion, dyadic consensus, dyadic satisfaction and dyadic adjustment, as well as the way in which the couple deals with conflict. These aspects were measured using the Conflict Tactics Scale and the Dyadic Adjustment Scale. Social support was measured using the Inventory of Socially Supportive Behaviors (ISSB) and the Social Support Questionnaire (SSQ). The purpose of the study was to determine whether there is any relationship between dyadic quality and dimensions of social support. Respondents were 163 undergraduate students at the University of Western Cape, South Africa. Multiple regression analyses indicated that a number of the indices of dyadic quality were significant predictors of the dimensions of social support. The result suggests that the quality of dyadic relationships impacts on the perceived availability and satisfaction with support. Research aimed at exploring and understanding the health-sustaining and stress-reducing functions of social support needs to focus on the potential negative impact of dyadic conflict and poor dyadic adjustment on the experience of social support.

The relationship between self-reported received and perceived social support: a meta-analytic review

Social support is broad term encompassing a variety of constructs, including support perceptions (perceived support) and receipt of supportive behaviors (received support). Of these constructs, only perceived support has been regarded as consistently linked to health, and researchers have offered differing assessments of the strength of the received-perceived support relationship. An overall estimate of the received-perceived support relationship would clearly further the dialogue on the relationship between received and perceived support and thus assist in the theoretical development of the field. This study evaluated all available studies using the Inventory of Socially Supportive Behaviors (ISSB; Barrera, Sandler, & Ramsey, 1981, American Journal of Community Psychology, 9, 435-447) and any measure of perceived social support. Using effect sizes from 23 studies, we found an average correlation of r = .35, p < .001. Implications of this estimate for further development of models of social support as well as interventions to enhance social support are discussed.

Measuring life events in a sample of South African students: comparison of the Life Experiences Survey and the Schedule of Recent Experiences

This study compared the Life Experiences Survey and the Schedule of Recent Experiences for a sample of 213 students. Scores on the Life Experiences Survey-Negative discriminated between rural and urban students and between African language speakers and Afrikaans/English speakers. A small but significant correlation between Life Experiences Survey-Negative and scores on the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression scale was found, while there was no correlation between scores on the Schedule of Recent Experiences with depression. The Life Experiences Survey-Negative was the only significant predictor of Depression scores. The Life Experiences Survey-Negative interacted significantly with all the measures of social support (Friends, Family, Satisfaction, and Number of Supports) in predicting depression, while the Schedule of Recent Experiences only interacted significantly with support from Family and Number of Supports. The study also provides support for clearly distinguishing between desirable and undesirable events, since positive events moderated the correlation of negative events with depression. The Life Experiences Survey is a more promising measure of life events than the Schedule of Recent Experiences in the South African context.

Problem-Solving Appraisal, Social Support and Stress-Depression Relationship

In this paper the authors report on a study that focused on the interactive effects of social support and appraisal of problem solving on the stress-depression relationship. The findings suggest a health-sustaining role (direct effects) for social support for both self-appraised effective and ineffective problem solvers. A stress-reducing function (buffering effect) for social support, however, seems to apply only to self-appraised effective problem solvers. In addition, an analysis of the interaction between stress and social support for self-appraised effective problem solvers seems to indicate that the expected moderating function of support operates only in the case of satisfaction with supports. In the case of number of supports, increased network size is related to an increase rather than a decrease in depression.