The innate sociability of humans plays a role in every moment of a person's life. Accordingly, social support is the key to many human accomplishments, including the successful management of stress. Social support is the perception or reality that one is cared for, has assistance from others, and is a member of a supportive social network. Social support is so important that social isolation can lead to depression, anxiety, and other negative emotions. In fact, feelings of social isolation are one of the primary triggers of suicidality. Supportive resources can be emotional, tangible, intangible, informational, and companion-based.
The term "social coping" refers to a person seeking social support while under stress. The two main models of social support are the buffering hypothesis and the direct-effects hypothesis, both of which describe a positive relationship between social support and stress management.
Types and Sources of Social Support
Social support can be categorized in several different ways. Emotional support is the presence, warmth, and nurturance that provides the individual with a sense of value, esteem, acceptance, or affection. Tangible support is the offering of a material service, such as financial support, that provides concrete assistance to another person. Informational support is the provision of advice, guidance, or suggestion that enables individual problem-solving. Companionship support is the presence of another person who provides a sense of belonging and engagement.
Social support
The presence of a social network that can either be expected to provide or actually provides social support can have extremely positive effects on the experience of stress and successful stress management.
In any instance, a type of support can be either perceived or received. Perceived support is a subjective, personal experience or judgment that support will be offered when needed and that such support will be effective. Received support is the objective, specific help that is offered in a time of need.
Social support can also be measured in terms of structural or function support. "Structural support" refers to the size of a person's social network, while "functional support" refers to the types of support that network can provide. Social networks encompass sources of support including families, friends, romantic partners, counselors, and organizations.
Social Support and Stress Management
Social support plays a major role in successful stress management. Social support reduces psychological distress and promotes adjustments that counteract high stress levels. People with low amounts of social support report higher instances of depression, anxiety, and mental disorders. For these people, stressful situations create higher amounts of panic, phobia, and disorder than for those with high social support. Social support also bolsters physical health, which can counteract many negative effects of stress.
The two dominant models of social support are the direct-effects hypothesis and the buffering hypothesis.
According to the direct-effects hypothesis, social support provides better health and wellness benefits all the time, regardless of whether the person being supported is currently experiencing stress
According to the buffering hypothesis, in contrast, social support provides such benefits most strongly when someone is supported while experiencing stress. Proponents of this hypothesis theorize that support serves as a protective layer, creating psychological distance between a person and stressful events.
Both of these hypotheses promote the theory that social support aids in successful stress management. The stress and coping theory aligns with the buffering hypothesis; it states that social support protects people from the bad health effects of stressful events by influencing thought and coping ability. This is based on the transactional theory, which argues that stressors are only stressful when perceived as such. Social support works by promoting adaptive appraisal that in turn leads to increased coping ability.
The relational regulation theory focuses on the relational aspect of perceived social support (not necessarily the same as actually provided social support). The relational aspect is that an individual's perception of social support is based on additional factors such as their own emotions, feelings about the other person, and interpretations of their conversations.