EXPLICATION OF THE CONCEPT OF SOCIAL SUPPORT TOWARD A RELEVANCY-BASED MEASUREMENT STRATEGY (PSYCHOSOCIAL HEALTH).
Contributors: Bagley, Elaine. joint author.; University of Colorado Health Sciences Center.
Published: 1986
Number of pages: 217
Subjects: Psychology, Social.; Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: The purpose of this study was to utilize an experientially relevant approach to the definition and measurement of social support. The framework for approaching the social support concept emerged from an evaluation of currently available social support definitions and measures, and from the results of two pilot studies conducted by the investigator. In the present investigation, social support was approached as the fulfillment of relevant support needs by members of an individual's social surround.

In order to obtain meaningful descriptions of the experience of social support, in-depth interviews were conducted with a sample of twenty persons experiencing problems related to their health and well-being. Interviews were open-ended and focused on each informant's description of supportive or nonsupportive experiences. All interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed. Each transcript was analyzed and coded for content related to the concept of social support and support needs.

Three stages of inductive data reduction resulted in three levels of support categories. The first level contained 55 categories of support needs and was used as the data base for the development of a social support inventory. The second level represented a similar level of abstraction and contained 41 support categories that were less specific to situations of ill-health.

The third and final level of data reduction resulted in 11 dimensions of social support. The support dimensions represent the phenomenological gestalt of social support as derived from the investigator's in-depth engagement with the informant's descriptions of support experiences. As such, the dimensions summarize the main findings of the qualitative study.

The variety of support needs that emerged from the sample were both different from and similar to those previously identified in the literature. Moreover, impressions gained from many informant's responses to nonsupportive behaviors suggested that a fit between support rendered and support required was essential to the experience of feeling effectively supported. The concepts of stigma, reciprocity and self-support also emerged as important to the support process. Plans for future revisions of the support inventory are presented, and implications of the findings for nursing theory, practice and research are discussed.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-07, Section: B, page: 3159.

Thesis (PH.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO HEALTH SCIENCES CENTER, 1986.

School code: 0831.