ABSTRACT
Social relationships play a central role in shaping the quality of people’s lives. Yet surprisingly little is known about the specific social resources that influence health and well-being. This may be due, in part, to inconsistencies between the way that social support is defined and the way it is operationalized (Coyne & Bolger, 1990; Coyne & DeLongis, 1986; Lakey & Cassady, 1990). Empirical research on support and health has been largely intrapersonal despite the interpersonal emphasis of social support theory. As noted by Gottlieb (1985), “investigators have settled into a way of measuring social support that makes it a property of the person rather than an environmental resource or at least an interpersonal exchange that has some basis in actual experience” (p. 357).
