The purpose of this study was to (1) examine the direct relations of multiple sources of social support on psychological well-being and (2) to examine the utility of an additive model on these variables, in a sample of 251 participants from a Southwestern Georgia University. The sources of support included family environment, friendship, family and significant other support, father's bonding and mother's bonding. Measures of psychological well-being included the summed total of Ryff's Scale of Psychological Well-Being (PWB), as well as self-confidence-an additional measure of psychological well-being. In addition to direct effects, it was hypothesized that having multiple, rather than fewer sources of support would be more beneficial to an individual. Hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to test the unique variability each variable added, as well as to determine whether the additive model predicted PWB above and beyond singular sources of support. Results revealed that the hypotheses predicting direct relationships between the social supports of interest and PWB were largely supported by the data with the exception of father bonding. Results for the additive model revealed mixed results, indicating that having numerous concurrent support lines are beneficial in certain cases. The importance of having multiple social supports from which one can rely, especially when dealing with stressors and crises are also expressed.

The current study examined the statistical relations between father's and mother's involvement and mental health. In addition, the study explored which parent's involvement was more strongly correlated with mental health. The impact of parental involvement (i.e., warmth, care, affection and overprotection) on global depression and depressive mood and ideation were of particular importance. Another goal of the study was to use an African American adult child sample to extend the research literature and knowledge about African American parenting and to gauge their involvement from a protective rather than risk perspective. The last goal of the study was to determine through hierarchical regression analysis the unique contribution of each parent's involvement to the participant's mental health. The sample included 236 African American participants from a regionally accredited Historically Black College and University (HBCU) in Southwest Georgia. Correlation and regression analyses revealed that father's and mother's involvement were related to global depression and depressive mood and ideation. Specifically, father's and mother's care was related to lower levels of depression but, father's and mother's overprotection was related to higher levels of depression. Additional results revealed that ratings of mother's involvement was usually stronger than ratings of father's involvement. Findings from this study, however, points to the importance of African American fathers in the development of their children.

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