Role of social support in the experience of stress at work.

Abstract

It has been hypothesized that the positive relation between stress and strain responses is stronger for individuals who have low levels of social support than for those who have high levels of support. This hypothesis that social support buffers (moderates) the negative effects of stress has been tested extensively in a variety of setting with highly conflicting results. Some theorists have recently proposed that the moderating effect of social support is itself buffered by other variables such as sex or social class. The present study was designed to examine the role of social support in the experience of work stress with a sample large enough to provide statistically powerful tests of models of social support that specify two-way and three-way interactions. No support for higher order interactive models was found. In addition, no evidence emerged demonstrating any buffering effect for social support. Arguments are advanced for a parsimonious model in which social support has a modest direct effect of lowering experienced strain. This research was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (1-R01-MH34408), Daniel C. Ganster, Principal Investigator. We would like to thank Mary Barton and Pamela Perrewe for their assistance in data collection and coding. We would also like to acknowledge the helpful comments of Robert Guion and two anonymous reviewers.

Relationships of job and family involvement, family social support, and work–family conflict with job and life satisfaction.

“…For instance, using a stratified (by occupation) random sample of workers, LaRocco et al (1980) found family and friend support did not predict work-related outcomes (e.g., job satisfaction), but it did predict general well-being (e.g., depression and anxiety). Additionally, in a study of workers in the construction industry, Ganster, Fusilier, and Mayes (1986) documented social support from family and friends to be more strongly correlated with health complaints than other indices of wellbeing. In one of the few studies that did examine nonwork sources of emotional and instrumental support separately, Kaufmann and Beehr (1989) reported emotional support from family and friends was significantly related to a composite of variables (job satisfaction, boredom, and depression) that they labeled strain reactions, but that instrumental support from family and friends did not.…”

The impact of employee perceptions of training on organizational commitment and turnover intentions: a study of multinationals in the Chinese service sector

“…For a number of decades, researchers have consistently demonstrated that social support is an important resource in that it facilitates the psychological, physical and overall well-being of individuals (La Rocco and Jones, 1978;La Rocco et al, 1980). Social support comes from three sources: family and friends, work colleagues (Ganster et al, 1986) and the immediate supervisor (Eisenberger et al, 2002).…”

A Macroergonomics Approach Examining the Relationship between Work-family Conflict and Employee Safety

“…While research concerning social support has found that different types of support can act as a buffer against negative workplace outcomes (Ganster et al, 1986;Greenhaus & Parasuraman, 1986;Kessler, Price, & Wortman, 1985;Viswesvaran et al, 1999), Parasuraman et al (1992) did not find that work support (i.e., supervisors and coworkers) had a buffering effect on the relationship between workfamily conflict and well-being. Their measure of support was a composite of emotional and informational support without instrumental support being included.…”

“…The moderating effect occurs when the relationship between a stressor and strain is stronger for individuals who experience low levels of support (Viswesvaran et al, 1999). Empirical support is mixed for the moderating effect of social support with some researchers finding moderating effects (e.g., Abdul-Halim, 1982) and others not finding such effects (Ganster, Fusilier, & Mayes, 1986). Researchers have also found reverse buffering effects (e.g., Kickul & Posig, 2001), which occur when high levels of support exacerbate instead of alleviate the effects of stressors on strains (Viswesvaran et al, 1999).…”