ABSTRACT
The family is an expected site of social support, and the dynamic nature of families provides an important context within which to study various processes and outcomes of support that scholars continue to mark as imperative. This chapter structures a review of social support in families around short-term and longer-term impacts of social support to show that (1) social support has immediate, short-term impacts on family functioning, relationship dynamics, and individual health and well-being (like any other relationship) and (2) families are the site of development – not only personality and cognitive development of children, but also the socialization of support skills. Because social support, like most constructs with wide academic appeal, has been defined in numerous ways, we first provide readers a background of the structural, functional, and quality approaches to the study of social support. We end the chapter by offering potential ways to strengthen the work on support within families.
