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Let's hang up and try again: Lessons learned from a social support intervention
Author(s) -
Vaux Alan
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
american journal of community psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.113
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1573-2770
pISSN - 0091-0562
DOI - 10.1007/bf00942255
Subject(s) - social support , intervention (counseling) , health psychology , psychological intervention , psychology , process (computing) , social psychology , applied psychology , public health , computer science , medicine , nursing , psychiatry , operating system
Conclusion Theorists and researchers have spent some 15 years trying to better understand social support. A great deal of progress has been made in the assessment of support resources, behavior, and appraisals, in conceptualizing the support process, and in understanding how support might influence well‐being. Community psychologists, in particular, have sought this knowledge as a basis for social intervention. The point has been reached where research and theory, though still incomplete, can inform intervention. Indeed, intervention programs are likely to make a unique contribution to our understanding. Yet, if anything has been learned, it is that the social support process is far more complex than initially thought, as is its relationship to well‐being. It is essential that support interventions reflect that complexity. The greatest threat is not that powerful and effective support interventions will prove impossible to develop and implement, but that we may become disillusioned by misunderstanding our failures.