Balance and source of social support in relation to well-being

Well-being was examined as a function of the balance of provided and received levels of four types of social support shared by 165 college students and their support networks over 1 semester. Prospective hierarchical regressions of balance of support exchange, after controlling for Time 1 level of the dependent variable, showed some interactions between hassles level and balance of support receipt and provision for symptomatology, but not for depression. These effects were stronger for low than for high hassle levels at Time 1 for men, whereas the opposite held for women. Men who provided more informational support than they received reported more symptoms at Time 2 than did net recipients, if Time 1 hassles were low. In contrast, women who received more tangible or more informational support than they provided at Time 1 reported more symptoms at Time 2 than did net providers, but only at high hassle levels. Results are interpreted in terms of both the costs and the benefits of receiving and providing support.