| A large body of research has shown that social support is positively related to personal well-being and the maintenance of close relationships. Recent studies, however, have indicated that receiving social support may have a detrimental effect on the recipient (e.g. lowered self-efficacy). I conducted two studies that explored the relationship between received support and support-recipient outcomes. Study 1 (N = 94 married couples) was an observational study in which one couple member was assigned to a stressful speech task. Pre- and post-speech couple interactions were unobtrusively videotaped and support quality was rated by trained coders. Results indicated that support-recipients who were stressed about the speech task and received high quality support performed better on their speech task (rated by independent coders), had higher self-evaluations, and were in a better mood relative to those who received lower quality support. In Study 2 (N = 60 dating couples), support was experimentally manipulated via false notes delivered to the support-recipient before and after a stressful speech task. Results revealed that high quality support led the support-recipient to be more willing to switch tasks (i.e. trade their own enjoyable task with their partner's less enjoyable task) and more relationship satisfaction. Furthermore, when support-recipients were stressed about the speech task and they received either high support or no support, they reported higher self-evaluations and mood following the speech task, relative to support-providers in the low-support condition. However, contrary to my expectations, when support-recipients were not stressed about the upcoming speech task, then support-recipients in both the high and low support conditions performed equally well on the speech task and were less nervous while giving the speech, relative to those in the no support condition. Finally, there was very little evidence that attachment style moderated these effects. Taken together, these results indicate that high quality support is beneficial to support-recipients, especially those who need it (as indicated by task-related stress). However, low quality support or support provided when not needed, is generally associated with negative support-recipient outcomes. |
