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Intra-individual versus extra-individual components of social support
1Department of Psychiatry, Nagoya City University School of Medicine, Japan.
Psychological Medicine
|September 23, 1997
Summary
Social support is not solely determined by external factors; a significant portion originates from within the individual. This study quantifies the internal and external influences on social support for exchange students.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Social Sciences
Background:
- Traditional views of social support emphasize external environmental provision.
- Emerging longitudinal and genetic research challenges this external-centric assumption.
- Quantitative differentiation between internal and external social support determinants is needed.
Purpose of the Study:
- To quantitatively distinguish intra-individual (internal) from extra-individual (external) components of social support.
- To assess the relative contributions of internal and external factors to perceived social support.
Main Methods:
- Employed structural equation modeling to partition social support variance.
- Utilized the People In Your Life scale to measure perceived social support.
- Longitudinal data collected from 103 high school exchange students at three time points.
Main Results:
- A substantial proportion of social support variance (24-86%) was attributed to intra-individual factors.
- Extra-individual factors accounted for 31-76% of measured social support.
- Intra-individual components showed moderate correlations with the personality trait of extraversion.
Conclusions:
- Perceived social support is influenced by both internal individual characteristics and external environmental factors.
- Findings challenge the conventional understanding of social support as purely an external construct.
- Individual traits play a significant role in shaping perceived social support.