Widening the gap: Support gaps in same race versus different race female friendship dyads

Abstract

Women frequently turn to other women for support to cope with stressors. The support they receive, however, is often not what they need or even expect from a friend. Based upon differences in racial backgrounds, this study tests whether the racial composition of female friendship dyads influences the experience of support gaps, or discrepancies among the types and amount of support women need, expect, and receive, as well as the outcomes associated with those gaps. Black and White women (N ¼ 312) recalled a supportive conversation with either a Black or White female friend about an identity-threatening stressor. The results show that women needed, expected, and received more of several types of support from friends of their same race and that several support gaps were more pronounced from friends of a different race. The racial composition of a dyad moderated the influence of support gaps on women's perceptions of supportiveness, reappraisal, and affect improvement.

Support gaps in parent‐emerging adult dyads: The role of support quality

“…The quality of support has been operationalized either as certain characteristics of supportive messages (e.g., high person-centeredness; Burleson & Goldsmith, 1998) or people's subjective evaluation of the supportive actions (e.g., High & Steuber, 2014;Priem, Solomon, & Steuber, 2009). Research has shown an association between support gaps and the support recipient's evaluations of the quality of support received (High & Steuber, 2014) or perceived supportiveness of the conversation (Davis & High, 2019). High and Steuber (2014), for instance, found that, for women coping with infertility, a received-desired support gap was associated with perceptions of reduced support quality from a spouse.…”

“…Different types of support have distinct purposes and functions; for example, emotional support aims to ease the negative feelings of the support recipients without directly helping them solve specific problems (Cutrona & Suhr, 1992), whereas other forms of social support often directly tackle the actual stressors by offering advice (i.e., informational support) or loaning material resources (tangible support; Cutrona & Suhr, 1992). Given these differences, past research has typically examined support gaps by distinguishing between distinct forms of social support (e.g., Davis & High, 2019;High & Steuber, 2014;Matsunaga, 2011). Research has found that the implications of support gaps varied by the type and source of support, such that support gaps in certain forms of support were more or less problematic than others (Brock & Lawrence, 2009;McLaren & High, 2015).…”

Effects of Provider Identity and Locus of Supportive Conversation on Coping With an Identity-Threatening Stressor

“…Receiving supportive communication, or verbal and nonverbal behaviors intended to provide help or comfort to a person experiencing a problem (MacGeorge, Feng, & Burleson, 2011), can facilitate coping with identity-threatening stressors (Davis & High, 2019). This study considers one particular social identity, a student’s college major, as an identity that is central to young adults’ self-concept.…”

Infant mortality inequities for Māori in New Zealand: a tale of three policies

“…This second interpretation is consistent with research that shows a positive racial bias towards one’s own race when internalizing messages. For example, in Davis and High’s research on racial gaps in 2019, it was found that certain groups perceive higher support when acquiring it from members of their own race [ 15 ].…”