ABSTRACT
Since Berkman and Syme (1979) demonstrated that people with more social contacts had lower death-rates, health scientists have become interested in the phenomenon of social support. Various studies resulted in similar findings: socially isolated people appeared in general to be less healthy (Cohen & Syme, 1985; Heller & Swindle, 1983; House, 1981). In addition, it was hypothesized that social support was able to reduce or even remove the negative effects of life events and long term difficulties on mental and physical well-being. As research in the area developed, it became clear that social support was developing into a controversial concept used in models intended to describe determinants of well-being. Social support has carried this label of indistinctness to the present day. Many researchers are currently trying to disentangle the nature and function of this seemingly clear concept. Research continues to attempt to: (1) demonstrate a relationship between social support and well-being, and (2) determine whether social support has a direct effect or one that only exists under the condition of a stressor, the so called buffering effect. Some researchers have tried to settle this discussion by providing a theoretical overview of the pros and cons of both models, or by presenting meta-analyses (Cohen & Wills 1985; Lin, 1986, Chapter 10; Schwarzer & Leppin, 1991). In general these attempts did not lead to clear unequivocal conclusions. The strength of the relationship between support and well-being is generally weak. Occasionally researchers even report negative relationships between support and well-being, indicating that people with more support tend to have lower levels of well-being. Recently, more and more authors point toward conceptual and methodological problems as the cause of these peculiar findings (Barrera, 1986; Schwarzer & Leppin, 1991).
