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Social support is a general rubric that encompasses at least three
distinct types of support: perceived support, enacted
support and social integration. There are different
measures for each of these types of support, and the types
are only weakly related to each other (Barrera,
1986
xClose
Barerra, M., Jr. (1986). Distinctions between social support
concepts, measures, and models. American Journal of Community
Psychology, 14, 413-445.; Dunkel-Schetter
& Bennett, 1990
xClose
Dunkel-Schetter, C., & Bennett, T. L. (1990). Differentiating
the cognitive and behavioral aspects of social support. In
B. R. Sarason, I. G. Sarason, & G. R. Pierce (Eds.), Social
support: an interactional view (pp. 267-296). NY: Wiley.;
Lakey
& Drew, 1997
xClose
Lakey, B., & Drew, J. B. (1997). A social-cognitive perspective
on social support. In G. R. Pierce, B. Lakey, I. G. Sarason,
& B. R. Sarason, (Eds) Sourcebook of social support and
personality (pp. 107-140). New York: Plenum.).
Furthermore, each type of social support displays its own
unique pattern of correlations with other constructs and variables,
indicating that each type is a distinct construct, i.e., the
three types have surprisingly little in common (Barrera,
1986
xClose
Barerra, M., Jr. (1986). Distinctions between social support
concepts, measures, and models. American Journal of Community
Psychology, 14, 413-445.; Lakey
& Drew, 1997
xClose
Lakey, B., & Drew, J. B. (1997). A social-cognitive perspective
on social support. In G. R. Pierce, B. Lakey, I. G. Sarason,
& B. R. Sarason, (Eds) Sourcebook of social support and
personality (pp. 107-140). New York: Plenum.).
Perceived support. Perceived support (also known as
functional support; Wills
& Filer, 2001
xClose
Wills, T. A., & Filer, M. (2001). Social networks and social
support. In A. Baum, T. A. Revenson, & J. E. Singer (Eds.),
Handbook of health psychology (pp. 209-234). Mahwah,
NJ: Erlbaum.) is the subjective judgment
that family and friends would provide quality assistance with
future stressors. People with high perceived-support believe
that they can count on their family and friends to provide
quality assistance during times of trouble. This assistance
may include listening to the stressed person talk about troubles,
expressing warmth and affection, offering advice or another
way of looking at the problem, providing specific assistance
such as looking after the children, or simply spending time
with the stressed person.
Enacted support. Enacted support reflects the same
kinds of assistance just listed, but emphasizes specific
supportive actions, whereas perceived support emphasizes
the stressed person's judgment that such actions would be
provided if needed. Surprisingly, perceived and enacted support
are only modestly related (Barrera,
1986
xClose
Barerra, M., Jr. (1986). Distinctions between social support
concepts, measures, and models. American Journal of Community
Psychology, 14, 413-445.; Dunkel-Schetter
& Bennett, 1990
xClose
Dunkel-Schetter, C., & Bennett, T. L. (1990). Differentiating
the cognitive and behavioral aspects of social support. In
B. R. Sarason, I. G. Sarason, & G. R. Pierce (Eds.), Social
support: an interactional view (pp. 267-296). NY: Wiley.;
Lakey
& Drew, 1997
xClose
Lakey, B., & Drew, J. B. (1997). A social-cognitive perspective
on social support. In G. R. Pierce, B. Lakey, I. G. Sarason,
& B. R. Sarason, (Eds) Sourcebook of social support and
personality (pp. 107-140). New York: Plenum.).
Social integration. Social integration refers to the
number or range of different types of social relations,
such as marital status, siblings, and membership in organizations
such as churches, mosques or temples. Social integration is
most often only weakly related to perceived and enacted support
(Barrera,
1986
xClose
Barerra, M., Jr. (1986). Distinctions between social support
concepts, measures, and models. American Journal of Community
Psychology, 14, 413-445.).
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