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Comment
. 2017 Dec;7(4):816-820.
doi: 10.1007/s13142-016-0458-9.

The failure to increase social support: it just might be time to stop intervening (and start rigorously observing)

Amanda L Graham  1   2 , George D Papandonatos  3 , Kang Zhao  4
Affiliations
Comment

The failure to increase social support: it just might be time to stop intervening (and start rigorously observing)

Amanda L Graham et al. Transl Behav Med. 2017 Dec.

Abstract

In 1986, Lichtenstein et al. (Behav Ther. 17(5):607-19, 1986) presented the results of five studies focused on enhancing social support for smoking cessation in community-based clinic and worksite interventions. The manuscript was titled Social Support in Smoking Cessation: In Search of Effective Interventions and its main conclusion was that "attempts to both increase social support and to enhance treatment effectiveness have not been successful." Thirty years later, the paper by Cutrona et al. (Transl Behav Med. 6(4):546-57, 2016) draws a similar conclusion from a study focused on providing social support through an online social network for smoking cessation. In reviewing these findings - and based on our knowledge of the extensive literature on social support interventions that has been published over the past 30+ years - we believe there is a need for a fundamental shift in research on social support. Our focus here is largely on smoking cessation, but our comments are applicable to other areas of behavior change.

Keywords: Internet; Smoking cessation; Social network; Social support.

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Conflict of interest statement

Disclosures

The findings reported have not been previously published and the manuscript is not being simultaneously submitted elsewhere. None of the findings presented herein have been previously reported. The authors have full control of all primary data, and they agree to allow the journal to review their data if requested.

Funding

This work was funded in part by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health (#R01 CA192345).

Conflict of interest

ALG is employed by the Truth Initiative which runs the BecomeAnEX website.

Comment on

References

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