Social support and psychological disorder: a review

Abstract

With the rapid growth in the literature on social support and psychological disorder, a review of the area is in order. The present article describes current conceptualizations of social support, and presents a distillation of empirical evidence on the relationships among stress, social support, and psychological disorder. The structure of support links and the quality of the relationships they provide appear to be associated with a range of mental health issues. Methodological problems with current research are assessed, and suggestions for appropriate design and conceptualization are offered.