ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the relationship between social support and emotional well-being in the physically ill. To examine the protective role of social support in this context, the chapter draws upon research pertaining to both clinical and subclinical depression. Several investigators have discussed some of the limitations of social support. The social support literature tends to assume positive and linear relationship between social support and well-being. By contrast, the literature on family functioning has paid more attention to maladaptive interactions such as over-involvement among family members, and the failure to acknowledge the separate needs of individuals within the family. The chapter explores the concept of social support and its relationship to mental health and depression in the medically ill. Contemporary researchers have tended to use social psychological or social systems perspective to study social support, although some attention has also been paid to its intrapsychic components. Structural measures of social support indicate the range and interconnectedness of existing social support resources.
