Contemporary models postulate the importance of psychological mechanisms linking perceived and received social support to physical health outcomes. In this review, we examine studies that directly tested the potential psychological mechanisms responsible for links between social support and health-relevant physiological processes (1980s to 2010). Inconsistent with existing theoretical models, no evidence was found that psychological mechanisms such as depression, perceived stress, and other affective processes are directly responsible for links between support and health. We discuss the importance of considering statistical/design issues, emerging conceptual perspectives, and limitations of our existing models for future research aimed at elucidating the psychological mechanisms responsible for links between social support and physical health outcomes.

Objective The quality of one’s personal relationships has been linked to morbidity and mortality across different diseases. As a result, it is important to examine more integrative mechanisms that might link relationships across diverse physical health outcomes. In this study, we examine associations between relationships and telomeres which predict general disease risk. These questions are pursued in the context of a more comprehensive model of relationships that highlights the importance of jointly considering positive and negative aspects of social ties. Method 136 individuals from a community sample (ages 48 to 77) completed the social relationships index which allows a determination of relationships that differ in their positive and negative substrates (i.e., ambivalent, supportive, aversive, indifferent). Telomere length was determined from peripheral blood mononuclear cells via quantitative PCR. Results Participants who had a higher number of ambivalent ties in their social networks evidenced shorter telomeres. These results were independent of other relationships types (e.g., supportive), as well as standard control variables (e.g., age, health behaviors, medication use). Gender moderated the links between ambivalent ties and telomere length with these associations seen primarily in women. Follow-up analyses revealed that the links between ambivalent ties and telomeres were primarily due to friendships, parents, and social acquaintances. Conclusions Consistent with epidemiological findings, these data highlight a novel and integrative biological mechanism by which social ties may impact health across diseases, and further suggests the importance of incorporating both positivity and negativity in the study of specific relationships and physical health.

Background The quality of social relationships and social support appears to be associated with physical health outcomes and sleep quality. Almost all previous research in this area focuses on positive aspects of relationships. Purpose The present study thus intended to examine the links between supportive, aversive, ambivalent, and indifferent network ties and sleep quality. Methods Relationship data, PSQI-assessed sleep quality, and depression were examined in 175 middle-aged and older adults. Results Consistent with hypotheses, supportive ties were positively related to sleep quality, while aversive ties predicted worse sleep quality; associations that were primarily seen for close relationships. Ambivalent and indifferent ties were not significant predictors of sleep quality. Importantly, depression was found to mediate the link between relationship quality and sleep quality. Conclusions These data suggest the more specific types of social relationships that may be linked to poor sleep quality, and that depression appears to underlie these associations.

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Perceptions of ambivalence during support may be a particularly important relational context in which marital ties influence health.

The Common Core set a standard for all children to read increasingly complex texts throughout schooling. The purpose of the present study was to explore text characteristics specifically in relation to early-grades text complexity. Three hundred fifty primary-grades texts were selected and digitized. Twenty-two text characteristics were identified at 4 linguistic levels, and multiple computerized opera tionalizations were created for each of the 22 text characteristics. A researcher-devised text-complexity outcome measure was based on teacher judgment of text complexity in the 350 texts as well as on student judgment of text complexity as gauged by their responses in a maze task for a subset of the 350 texts. Analyses were conducted using a logical analytical progression typically used in machine-learning research. Random forest regression was the primary statistical modeling technique. Nine text character istics were most important for early-grades text complexity including word structure (decoding demand and number of syllables in words), word meaning (age of acquisition, abstractness, and word rareness), and sentence and discourse-level characteristics (intersentential complexity, phrase diversity, text density/information load, and noncompressibility). Notably, interplay among text characteristics was im portant to explanation of text complexity, particularly for subsets of texts.

Objective Social support is a reliable predictor of cardiovascular health. According to the buffering hypothesis, stress is one mechanism by which support is able to affect physiological processes. However, most of the experimental evidence for the hypothesis comes from laboratory studies. Ambulatory blood pressure protocols examine participants in their natural environment, where they are more likely to encounter personally relevant real-world stressors. Furthermore, prior work shows that examining support by its specific functional components reveals additional independent links to health. Methods The current study aimed to examine the stress-buffering effects of functional social support on ABP. 188 participants completed a one day ABP assessment along with measures of functional social support and both global perceived stress and momentary stress at time of reading. Results Results indicated main effects for both stress measures. Global support, emotional, tangible, and informational support only moderated the effects of momentary stress, but not global stress, in predicting ABP. Informational support was the most consistent stress-buffering predictor of ABP, predicting both ambulatory SBP and DBP. Conclusions The predicted values in ABP for informational support achieved health-relevant differences, emphasizing the value of examining functional support beyond global support alone.

Perceived support has been related to lower cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. However, little is known about the specific functional components of support responsible for such links. We tested if emotional, informational, tangible, and belonging support predicted ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) and interpersonal interactions (e.g., responsiveness), and if such links were moderated by gender. In this study, 94 married couples underwent 12 hours of ABP monitoring during daily life which included a night at home with their spouse. They completed a short-form of the interpersonal support evaluation list that provides information on total (global) support, as well as specific dimensions of support. Results revealed that global support scores did not predict ABP during daily life. However, separating out distinct support components revealed that emotional support was a significant predictor of lower ambulatory systolic and diastolic blood pressure, primarily for women. Finally, emotional support predicted greater partner responsiveness and self-disclosure, along with less perceived partner negativity although these results were not moderated by gender. These data are discussed in terms of the importance of considering specific support components and the contextual processes that might influence such links.