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Whose Support Matters? Support of Friends (but Not Family) May Predict Affect and Wellbeing of Adults Faced With Negative Life Events

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 June 2017

Scott P. Secor ,
Alicia Limke-McLean  and
Ronald W. Wright
Scott P. Secor*
Affiliation:
Southern Nazarene University, Bethany, Oklahoma, USA
Alicia Limke-McLean
Affiliation:
University of Central Oklahoma, Edmond, Oklahoma, USA
Ronald W. Wright
Affiliation:
Southern Nazarene University, Bethany, Oklahoma, USA
*
ADDRESS FOR CORRESPONDENCE: Scott P. Secor, Department of Psychology and Counseling, Southern Nazarene University, 6729 NW 39th Expressway, Bethany, OK 73008, USA. E-mail: ssecor@snu.edu
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Abstract

Research on resilience has shown that resilient individuals possess a variety of internal characteristics (e.g., hardiness and reflectiveness) and a mixture of external characteristics (e.g., social contact and relationship recruiting) that interact to promote resilience. This research examined the relationship between social support of friends, social support of family, and resiliency to further understand the impact of social contact on psychological health and wellbeing. Study 1 showed that in the face of self-reported difficult life circumstances, friend support (but not family support) predicts most aspects of psychological wellbeing. Similarly, Study 2 found that previous reports of friend (but not family) support predicted positive affect for participants in a simulated achievement rejection experimental condition. Taken together, these studies suggest that among adults, perceived social support from friends may be more impactful than social support from family.

Keywords

resiliencesocial supportfriend supportwellbeingnegative life events
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Relationships Research , Volume 8 , 2017 , e10
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2017 

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