Main description:

While insights sometimes are slow in coming, they often seem obvious when they finally arrive. This handbook is an outcome of the insight that the topics of social support and the family are very closely linked. Obvious as this might seem, the fact remains that the literatures dealing with social support and the family have been deceptively separate and distinct. For example, work on social support began in the 1970s with the accumulation of evidence that social ties and social integration play important roles in health and personal adjustment. Even though family members are often the key social supporters of individuals, relatively little re search of social support was targeted on family interactions as a path to specifying supporter processes. It is now recognized that one of the most important features of the family is its role in providing the individual with a source of support and acceptance. Fortunately, in recen t years, the distinctness and separateness of the fields of social support and the family have blurred. This handbook provides the first collation and integration of social support and family research. This integration calls for specifying processes (such as the cognitions associated with poor support availability and unrewarding faIllily constellations) and factors (such as cultural differences in family life and support provision) that are pertinent to integration.

Contents:

Conceptual and Methodological Issues in Research on Social Support and the Family: Conceptualizing and Assessing Social Support in the Context of the Family; G.R. Pierce, et al. Information Processing Approaches to the Study of Family Relationship Schemas; P.L. Yee, et al. Social Support in Marriage: A Cognitive Perspective; S.R.H. Beach, et al. Social Support in Its Cultural Context; P. Dilworth-Anderson, S. Marshall. The Role of Social Support in Family Relationships: The Neglected Links between Marital Support and Marital Satisfaction; L.K. Acitelli. The Socialization of Emotional Support Skills in Childhood; B.R. Burleson, A.W. Kunkel. Attachment, Social Competency, and the Capacity to Use Social Support; H.M. Coble, et al. Social Support as a Determinant of Marital Quality: The Interplay of Negative and Supportive Behaviors; C.E. Cutrona. Contemporary Processes in the Social Networks of Older Adults; K. Rook, T.L. Schuster What Is Supportive about Social Support? On the Psychological Needs for Autonomy and Relatedness; R.M. Ryan, J.A. Solkey. The Impact of Marital and Social Network Support on Quality of Parenting; R.L. Simons, C. Johnson. The Mutual Influence of Family Support and Youth Adaptation; C. Timko, R.H. Moos. Stress, Clinical Problems, and Support Needs for Families: The Relation of Family Support to Adolescents' Psychological Distress and Behavior Problems; M. Barrera, Jr., S.A. Li. Social Support in Postdivorce Families; I. Bretherton, et al. Social Support and Pregnancy; C. Dunkel-Schetter. Social Support and Social Coping in Couples; S.E. Hobfoll. Social Support and Preventive Therapeutic Interventions; B. Lakey, C.J. Lutz. Family Stress and Social Support among Caregivers to Persons with Alzheimer's Disease; K. Pillemer, J. Suitor. The Role of Attachment in Perceived Support and the Stress and Coping Process; J.T. Ptacek. The Role of Family and Peer Relationships in Adolescent Substance Abuse; T.A. Willis, et al.. Index.