ABSTRACT
The preceding chapters, in their diversity of topics and approaches, sketch what may be regarded as the purview of social support research. They demonstrate the impressive degree of sophistication that good research in the field has reached, particularly with regard to health correlates of support, as shown by Schwarzer and Leppin in Chapter 5 on physical disorders and Henderson in Chapter 6 on depression. Overall, the research attests to the basic importance of the support concept for epidemiological and etiological research in mental health.
