Social support and well-being: Implications for prevention programs

A variety of prevention programs have assumed that social support has health-promotive and health-protective effects. Although numerous studies have examined the relationship between social support and well-being, the result has been a heterogeneous and complex set of findings. We seek to review and summarize this research as a data base for planning and evaluating prevention programs. To organize our review, we present a model of stress, support, and well-being which distinguishes among several mechanisms through which support may affect well-being. We consider research on each of these mechanisms: thedirect effects of support upon functioning; theindirect effects of support upon functioning through its influence on exposure to environmental stressors; and theinteractive effects of social support in buffering the individual from the maladaptive effects of stress. We then address several implications of this research that need to be considered in the process of designing and evaluating prevention programs: (a) the need to consider the varying mechanisms through which social support has its effects; (b) the need for specificity in developing preventive interventions; and (c) the need to examine relationships among stress, support, and functioning within a broader social context.