Social Network Support

Social support is the perception and actuality that one is cared for, has assistance available from other people, and that one is part of a supportive social network. These supportive resources can be emotional (e.g., nurturance), tangible (e.g., financial assistance), informational (e.g., advice), or companionship (e.g., sense of belonging). Social support can be measured as the perception that one has assistance available, the actual received assistance, or the degree to which a person is integrated in a social network. Support can come from many sources, such as family, friends, pets, organizations, coworkers, etc. Social support is studied across a wide range of disciplines

including psychology, medicine, sociology, nursing, public health, and social work. Social support has been linked to many benefits for both physical and mental health, but social support is not always beneficial. Two main models have been proposed to describe the link between social support and health: hypothesis. the
[1]

buffering

hypothesis

and

the

direct

effects

Gender and cultural differences in social support have also been found.

Categories and Definition

Distinctions in Measurement Social support can be categorized and measured in several different ways. There are four common functions of social support Emotional support is the offering of empathy, concern, affection, love, trust, acceptance, intimacy, encouragement, or caring. It is the warmth and nurturance provided by sources of social support. Providing emotional support can let the individual know that he or she is valued. [ It is also sometimes called esteem support or appraisal support. Tangible support is the provision of financial assistance, material goods, or services. Also called instrumental support, this form of social support encompasses the concrete, direct ways people assist others.[

Informational support is the provision of advice, guidance, suggestions, or useful information to someone. This type of information has the potential to help others

problem-solve. Companionship support is the type of support that gives someone a sense of social belonging (and is also called belonging). This can be seen as the presence of companions to engage in shared social activities with Researchers also commonly make a distinction between perceived and received support. Perceived support refers to a recipients subjective judgment that providers will offer (or have offered) effective help during times of need. Received support (also called enacted support) refers to specific supportive actions (e.g., advice or reassurance) offered by providers during times of need. Furthermore, social support can be measured in terms of structural support or functional support. Structural support (also called social integration) refers to the extent to which a recipient is connected within a social network, like the number of social ties or how integrated a person is within his or her social network Family relationships, friends, and membership in clubs and organizations contribute to social integration. Functional support looks at the specific functions that members in this social network can provide, such as the emotional, instrumental, informational, and companionship support listed above. These different types of social support have different patterns of correlations with health, personality, and personal relationships. For example, perceived support is consistently linked to better mental health whereas received support and social integration are not. Some have suggested that invisible support, a form of support where the person has support without his or her awareness, may be the most beneficial.

Benefits Mental Health

In stressful times, social support helps people reduce psychological distress (e.g., anxiety or depression). Social support has been found to promote psychological adjustment in conditions with chronic high stress like HIV, rheumatoid arthritis, cancer, stroke, and coronary artery disease. People with low social support report more subclinical symptoms of depression and anxiety than do people with high social support. In addition, people with low social support have higher rates of major mental disorder than those with high support. These include post traumatic stress disorder, panic

disorder, social phobia, major depressive disorder, dysthymic disorder, and eating disorders. Among people with schizophrenia, those with low social support have more symptoms of the disorder. In addition, people with low support have more suicidal ideation, and more alcohol and drug problems. Similar results have been found among children.

Physical Health

Social support has numerous ties to physical health, including mortality. People with low social support are at a much higher risk of death from a variety of diseases (e.g., cancer, cardiovascular disease). Numerous studies have shown that people with higher social support have an increased likelihood for survival. Individuals with lower levels of social support have: more cardiovascular disease, more inflammation and less effective immune system functioning, more complications during pregnancy, and more functional disability and pain associated with rheumatoid arthritis, among many other findings. Conversely, higher rates of social support have been associated with numerous positive outcomes, including faster recovery from coronary artery surgery, less susceptibility to herpes attacks, a lowered likelihood to show age-related cognitive decline, and better diabetes control. People with higher social support are also less likely to develop colds and are able to recover faster if they are ill from a cold.

Costs
Although there are many benefits to social support, it is not always beneficial. It has been proposed that in order for social support to be beneficial, the social support desired by the provider has to match the support given to him or her; this is known as the matching hypothesis. Psychological stress may increase if a different type of support is provided than what the recipient wishes to receive (e.g., informational is given when emotional support is sought). Other costs have been associated with social support. For example, received support has not been linked consistently to either physical or mental health; if anything, received

support has surprisingly been linked to worse mental health. Additionally, if social support is overly intrusive, it can increase stress.

Two Dominant Models

There are two dominant hypotheses addressing the link between social support and health: the buffering hypothesis and the direct effects hypothesis. The main difference between these two hypotheses is that the direct effects hypothesis predicts that social support is beneficial all the time, while the buffering hypothesis predicts that social support is mostly beneficial during stressful times. Evidence has been found for both hypotheses. In the buffering hypothesis, social support protects (or "buffers") people from the bad effects of stressful life events (e.g., death of a spouse, job loss). Evidence for stress buffering is found when the correlation between stressful events and poor health is weaker for people with high social support than for people with low social support. The weak correlation between stress and health for people with high social support is often interpreted to mean that social support has protected people from stress. Stress buffering is more likely to be observed for perceived support than for social integration or received support. In the direct effects (also called main effects) hypothesis, people with high social support are in better health than people with low social support, regardless of stress In addition to showing buffering effects, perceived support also shows consistent direct effects for mental health outcomes. Both perceived support and social integration show main effects for physical health outcomes. However, received (enacted) support rarely shows main effects.

Types of Family Nuclear Family

The nuclear family or elementary family is a term used to define a family group consisting of a pair of adults and their children. This is in contrast to a polygamous family, single-parent family, and to the larger extended family. Nuclear families typically center on a married couple, but not always; the nuclear family may have any number of children. There are differences in definition among observers; some definitions allow only biological children that are full-blood siblings, while others allow for a stepparent and any mix of dependent children including stepchildren and adopted children. Family structures of a single married couple and their children were present in Western Europe and New England in the 17th century, influenced by church and theocratic governments.[5] With the emergence of proto-industrialization and early capitalism, the nuclear family became a financially viable social unit. The term nuclear family first appeared in the early twentieth century. Alternative definitions have evolved to include family units headed by same-sex parents, and perhaps additional adult relatives who take on a cohabiting parental role; in this later case it also receives the name of conjugal family. The concept that a narrowly defined nuclear family is central to stability in modern society has been promoted by modern social conservatives in the United States, and has been challenged as historically and sociologically inadequate to describe the complexity of actual family relations.

Single parent
A single parent usually refers to a parent who has most of the day to day responsibilities in the raising of the child or children, which would categorize them as the dominant caregiver who is not living with a spouse or partner, or those who are not married. The dominant caregiver is the parent in whom the children have residency with the majority of the time; if the parents are separated or divorced children live with their custodial parent and have visitation with their noncustodial parent. In western

society in general, following separation, a child will end up with the primary caregiver, usually the mother, and a secondary caregiver, usually the father. Historically death of a partner was a major cause of single parenting. Single parenting can result from separation or divorce of a couple with children. Custody battles, awarded by the court or rationalized in other terms, determine who the child will spend majority of their time with, this affects children in many ways and there are many suggestions to counsel them. A mother is typically the primary caregiver in a single parent family structure as a result of divorce, unplanned pregnancy. Fathers have been less commonly primary caregiver in the past, presumably due to assumptions that a child from two separate parents is better off with the mother than the father, but this scenario has shifted in recent years. Single parent adoption is sometimes an option for adults who want children but do not have a partner. The demographics of single parenting show a general increase worldwide in children living in single parent homes. Single parenting has become an accepted norm in the United States and is an accepted trend found in multiple other countries. Debates concerning not only the single parents themselves, but also the children involved, support for the families in single parent households, and more have arisen. Although divorce is one of the main events that lead to single parenting, it may be that the majority of cases (in the US) are from pregnancy outside of wedlock.

Extended Family
The term extended family has several distinct meanings. It consists of grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. In some circumstances, the extended family comes to live either with or in place of a member of the nuclear family; a family that includes in one household near relatives in addition to a nuclear family. An example would be elderly parent who move in with their children due to old age. This places large demands on the caregivers, particularly on the female relatives who choose to perform these duties for their extended family. In modern Western cultures dominated by nuclear family, it has come to be used generically to refer to grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins, whether they live together within the same household or not.

However, it may also refer to a family unit in which several generations live together within a single household. In some cultures, the term is used synonymously with consanguineous family. In an extended family, parents and their children's families may often live under a single roof. This type of joint family often includes multiple generations in the family. From culture to culture, the variance of the term may have different meanings. For instance, in India, the family is a patriarchal society, with the sons' families often staying in the same house. In the joint family set-up, the workload is shared among the members, often unequally. The roles of women are often restricted to housewives and this usually involves cooking, cleaning, and organizing for the entire family. The patriarch of the family (often the oldest male member) lays down the rules and arbitrates disputes. Other senior members of the household babysit infants in case their mother is working. They are also responsible in teaching the younger children their mother tongue, manners, and etiquette. Grandparents often take the leading roles due to the fact that they have the most experience with parenting and maintaining a household.

Childless Family
A childless family is basically a group of people from all variety of backgrounds and all walks of life who, for whatever reason, have never had children. Others will perhaps have children at sometime in the future, but are not prepared just yet, and some sought to have children but were unable to because of a variety of social and/or biological forces that obstruct and result in unplanned childlessness. To replace children, childless families usually have pets as a substitute.

Reasons for Childlessness

Reasons for childlessness include, but are not limited to, the following.

Infertility, defined as the failure of a woman to achieve pregnancy or carry a child to term, or of a man to cause pregnancy, is regarded as the most prominent reason for involuntary childlessness. Other definitions include "the failure to conceive after unprotected intercourse for (more than) one year or two years". Failure to conceive a second or subsequent pregnancy is defined as secondary infertility. There are many causes of infertility. Main article: Infertility

Infant or child death. medical or gynecological problems, including lack of maternal medical care and damage during previous childbirth

Celibacy. Lack of appropriate resources (financial, community, etc.). environment Lack of a partner or lack of willingness from partner. Social infertility. Personal choice, that is, voluntary childlessness.

Wanting to pursue educational goals.