Browsing by Subject "Perceived social support"

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5

Conflict and cortisol in newlyweds’ natural environments : the stress-buffering role of perceived network support
(2013-12) Keneski, Elizabeth Rose; Loving, Timothy J.; Neff, Lisa A.
Relationship conflict is robustly linked to negative physiological responses that have serious implications for partners’ overall physical health. The link between relationship conflict and physiological reactivity, however, has been studied almost exclusively in a laboratory setting. The first aim of this study was to assess the link between conflict and physiological function in couples’ home environments. Newlywed spouses reported occurrences of marital conflict in a daily diary and concurrently provided morning and evening saliva samples for the calculation of daily diurnal cortisol slopes. Spouses experienced less steep (i.e., less healthy) diurnal cortisol slopes on days of greater marital conflict. The second aim of this study was to examine whether spouses’ connections with close others outside their marriages (i.e., quantity and quality of perceived network support) moderate physiological responses to marital conflict. Whereas the quantity of network support did not influence spouses’ responses to conflict, the quality of spouses’ network support attenuated the association between daily marital conflict and diurnal cortisol. Specifically, whereas those spouses who were less satisfied with their network support experienced less steep diurnal cortisol on days of greater marital conflict, those spouses who were more satisfied with their network support exhibited no effects of daily marital conflict on diurnal cortisol. Implications for maintaining quality social relationships outside a marriage are discussed.
Participation in online health communities and perceived social support : elaborating participation types, identification, and interpersonal bonds
(2018-05) Zhu, Yaguang; Stephens, Keri K.; Bernhardt, Jay; Barbour, Joshua; Donovan, Erin; Scott, Craig
Presently, an increasing number of people with chronic diseases exchange social support using online health communities (OHCs). They often gain knowledge from interacting with like-others and improve self-management of their disease. Analyzing people’s online participatory behaviors boosts our understanding of the impact of OHCs. This dissertation project describes two interrelated studies that examine the relationship between participation types, group communication mechanisms, and social support. Together, they reveal how people participate in OHCs and provide understanding of the nuanced communicative mechanisms found in online communities that might help people cope and heal when they have a chronic disease. Study One critiques previous methodological approaches as limited by a static conceptualization of participation that (1) dichotomized people’s online interaction (e.g., low participation vs. high participation) and (2) did not allow for variability of OHC participation. To fill the gap, this study advances the conceptualization of OHC participation by defining participation in two equally important dimensions: level of participation (ranging from complete lurking to active posting) and mode of participation (task mode and/or relational mode). This conceptualization is further validated through an empirically-based user typology. Results of cluster analyses identify a fourfold typology of user participation: hybrid-mode posting, task-mode posting, relational-mode posting, and task-mode lurking. Drawing on Prentice et al.’s (1994) common-identity and common-bond framework, Study Two proposes and examines the group communication mechanisms through which members’ OHC participation influences their perceived social support. Results of the SEM model suggest that two group communication mechanisms—identification with the community and interpersonal bonds with other members—mediate the relationship between OHC participation and perceived social support. Specifically, identification has a stronger mediating effect than interpersonal bonds. Furthermore, one-way ANOVAs reveal that identification, interpersonal bonds, and perceived social support vary across different user participation types (as identified in Study One). A discussion of results is offered in addition to study limitations and future directions. Notably, this dissertation makes theoretical progress on the impact of different participation types and group communication mechanisms for benefiting members in OHCs. From an applied perspective, this research contributes to OHC design insights that can potentially (1) enhance users’ participation in OHCs and (2) improve online intervention programs by targeting specific functions of OHCs.
The relation between social support and college students’ depression : integrating main and stress-buffering effects across socioeconomic statuses
(2016-08) Crowe, Elizabeth Wiginton; McCarthy, Christopher J.; Bentley-Edwards, Keisha; Holahan, Charles J; Steinhardt, Mary; Pituch, Keenan
Research consistently shows a negative association between socioeconomic status (SES) and depression. Equally well-established is the contribution of social support to positive outcomes. Though the intersection of these constructs has been empirically examined, their interrelations remain unclear. The goal of this dissertation was to contribute to research on socioeconomic status (SES) and social support in college students. Conditional process analysis (i.e., moderated mediation) was used to explore: 1) whether perceived social support mediates the relation between network diversity and depression; and 2) whether family affluence, subjective social class, and first-generation status moderate the relation between both types of social support and depression. As hypothesized, perceived support and network diversity were negatively correlated with depressive symptoms, and SES indicators (with the exception of generation status) were positively correlated with depressive symptoms. Contrary to hypotheses, network diversity had a positive direct effect on depression. However, the results did suggest that network diversity has a negative indirect effect on depression via perceived support. Though the SES indicators correlated with depressive symptoms, they were not found to directly affect depression in the regression models. Additionally, the SES indicators did not moderate the relation between perceived support and depression or between network diversity and depression. Based on this pattern of results, it was concluded that network diversity, a type of structural support, may not be unequivocally beneficial, as is often assumed in research. Therefore, it is suggested that future studies include measures of the quality of social relationships as mediators between measures of structural support and mental health outcomes. With regard to the nonsignificant effects of SES and lack of moderation between social support and SES, it was proposed that college students may be protected from some of the stressful aspects of being of low SES. The difficulty in designing robust, generalizable research on SES and social support is also discussed. In an effort to establish consistency in the literature on these important constructs, future researchers should be intentional about how they operationalize and measure SES and social support.
Unwanted pursuit : perceived social support and its impacts on coping
(2019-08-12) Kim, Jihye; Dailey, René M.; Vangelisti, Anita L; Donovan, Erin; Neff, Lisa A
The characteristics of unwanted pursuit behaviors and associated negative consequences are often researched and well documented in the literature. Nevertheless, how individuals deal with the victimization and whether their choice of managing the trauma will have impacts on consequences remains unclear. A majority of existing research examines the role of social support and coping techniques using non-college populations. Moreover, less is understood on the relationships among perceived social supports and available coping techniques on the trauma symptoms associated with the victimization. The purpose of this project was to explore aforementioned associations. The current study examined (a) the prevalence of use of different coping techniques and how the use of coping differed by sex, (b) the associations among the unwanted pursuit experiences, perceived social support and coping techniques, as well as traumatic symptoms resulted from the victimization, and (c) how perceived social support and available coping techniques have impact on alleviating trauma symptoms. College-aged participants (N = 202) responded to a series of online questionnaires. The data collected from this project answered research questions and hypotheses and they were consistent with the preceding research and their findings. The study found that unwanted pursuit victimization is a gendered phenomenon, victimization yields more trauma symptoms as well as seeking more coping behaviors, and the use of social support and coping techniques have positive associations, and social support and coping techniques were served as a significant moderator and mediator in certain conditions. The use of coping strategies mediated the relationship between unwanted pursuit experience and the trauma symptoms, but this did not significantly vary by perceived social support. Altogether, the current study supports existing research in unwanted pursuit and highlights some insightful information on the relationships among perceived social support, coping, and trauma symptoms from the victimization.
Women in the fire service : investigating the influence of conformity to masculine gender role norms and perceived social support on trauma symptomology
(2020-03-27) Smith, Emily Rose; Parent, Mike C.; Tran, Jana; Awad, Germine H; Whittaker, Tiffany A
Research on masculinity has typically paid little attention to how masculine gender socialization affects women. Gender socialization is particularly important to understand within highly-masculinized occupations, such as the fire service, in which women are subjected to frequent negative experiences such as coworker hostility, the silent treatment, close and punitive supervision, and sexual harassment. These negative experiences may lead to a reduction in female firefighter’s perceived levels of social support. The stress-buffering model of social support highlights the critical role perceptions of social support play in an individual’s appraisal of their ability to cope with stressors and subsequent use of coping skills. It is crucial to understand variables that influence female firefighter’s perceptions of social support and its relationship to trauma symptomology. Masculine gender role conformity of female firefighters is likely to influence interactions within the male-dominated environment, resulting in relationships between masculine gender vii conformity and perceived social support at work. This study explored the relationship between conformity to masculine norms (CMN) and trauma symptom severity (TSS), as assessed by the Conformity to Masculine Norms Inventory – 46 (CMNI-46) and PTSD Civilian Checklist – 5 (PCL-5) respectively, and further sought to investigate whether the association between CMN and TSS is mediated by perceived social support (PSS). This study also investigated CMN amongst female firefighters in comparison to that of normative data samples of women. Data were collected through self-report questionnaires distributed to all active-duty female firefighters employed by two large municipal fire departments in the Southwestern region of the United States. The mediated model was assessed using the PROCESS macro by Hayes (2013) and indicated support for the overall model (β = -.132, SE = .061, CI = -.266, -.026), and the significant indirect effect (b = - 0.132) indicated that PSS mediated the relationship between CMN and TSS. Results from the CMNI-46 indicated significant differences in CMN between this sample of female firefighters and samples of women from previous studies. These findings indicate conformity to gender roles has significant indirect effects on the health of women in the fire department and highlight the importance of social support for the wellbeing of female firefighters