Perceived social support, received social support, and depression among clergy

Abstract

We argue that perceived support is best conceptualized more as a measure of how an individual appraises his/her situation rather than a true reflection of how much support he/she receives. To test this theory, we used survey data from the Clergy Health Initiative Panel Survey to examine the relationship between perceived and received social support and their association with depressive symptoms in clergy (N = 1,288). Overall, analyses revealed perceived support had a weak association with received support. Greater perceived support had a significant relationship with lower depressive symptoms. In contrast, greater received support had only a small relationship with lower depressive symptoms, which was fully mediated by perceived support. Our results raise questions about the effectiveness of many clergy social support interventions, which often aim to boost the quality and/or quantity of received social support. We suggest it may be more advantageous to boost perceptions of social support, possibly through cognitive reframing or positive mental health interventions.

Examining social isolation and loneliness in combination in relation to social support and psychological distress using Canadian Longitudinal Study of Aging (CLSA) data

“…As such, the socially isolated and lonely group, was expected to be the most at risk, similar to previous research that shows that social isolation and loneliness have a synergistic effect [18,45]. In considering the two middle groups (the only socially isolated and only lonely), we took into account that perceptions of social support, like loneliness, reflect individuals' appraisal of a situation [57]. We therefore expected loneliness to be more strongly associated with perceptions of social support than social isolation, with the only lonely group consequently reporting lower social support availability than the only socially isolated group.…”

Association Between Social Support and Job Satisfaction Among Mainland Chinese Ethnic Minority Kindergarten Teachers: The Mediation of Self-Efficacy and Work Engagement

“…SS has commonly been differentiated into "perceived SS" and "received SS" (Barrera, 1986;Vangelisti, 2009). Perceived SS (subjective support) refers to the perceived availability and adequacy of social connections, such as being valued, respected, and loved by others; received SS (objective support) focuses on the quantity and quality of the support given by society and organization, such as financial assistance and goods (Eagle et al, 2019).…”

Poor Motor Performance – Do Peers Matter? Examining the Role of Peer Relations in the Context of the Environmental Stress Hypothesis

“…Additionally, we could not test whether or not the best friendship was based on reciprocity nor whether the best friend is a real or an imaginary companion (e.g., Taylor et al, 2010;Gleason, 2017), as children assessed their friendship quality by themselves. However, the subjective assessment of the children's friendship quality might well be more important than objective friendship quality in the sense of reciprocity, which is already well-established in the field of perceived social support (Uchino, 2009;Eagle et al, 2019). And finally, the child best friend's characteristics are missing.…”