Relationships among social support, perceived control, and psychological distress in late life

Social support has been shown to buffer the relationship between life stress and psychological distress in late life. However, little attention has been paid to personality variables that are associated with the capacity to effectively utilize social support. Although the buffering effects of social support were replicated in our sample of 134 community-dwelling individuals over the age of 65, perceived control was found to significantly moderate the relationship between stress, social support, and psychological distress. Specifically, older adults who were highly satisfied with social support consistently reported less psychological distress than those who were less satisfied with social support, regardless of perceived control. However, under conditions of both low and high satisfaction with social support, external controllers were found to be less reactive to stress than internal controllers. Implications for developing more complex models of the relationship between stress, social support and psychological distress are discussed.