<p>I tidigare forskning finns ett samband mellan socialt stöd och reducerad stress. Även husdjur påverkar stressnivån. Denna enkätstudie tittade på om husdjur och civilstånd påverkar hälsa och stressnivå. Av de studenter som deltog i studien hade 35% husdjur. Resultatet visade inte på någon effekt på stress av att ha husdjur. Personer med partner upplevde inte mindre stress än singlar. Huruvida deltagarna bodde med sin partner eller ej spelade ingen roll för stressnivån. Husdjursantalet påverkade inte stressupplevelsen. En interaktionseffekt påvisades: Yngre singlar och äldre personer med partner upplevde mer stress än vad yngre personer med partner och äldre singlar gjorde. Studiens resultat skiljer sig från vad tidigare forskning då inga huvudeffekter av husdjur och partner kunde påvisas.</p>

Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

Social support is important for health and well-being and has been associated with reduced isolation in rural communities. Support from family and friends may become increasingly important as one ages, and may enable some seniors to remain living in their communities. The purpose of this project was to understand variation in the social support resources of older adults in rural Canada. This included variation in seniors social networks, support networks, tasks and services received, and exchange patterns. Methods included secondary analysis of a national telephone survey of adults aged 65 and older residing in rural Canada. Four key findings emerged. First, there was variation in the connections seniors had to family and friends. While some seniors had social networks averaging two people, others had social networks averaging 17. Who is present in social networks sets limits on who can be recruited into the support network. Second, who gets recruited from social networks into support networks varies. On average, social networks comprised 10 people, but support networks averaged three people. Spouses, children, middle-aged and local social network members were most likely to be recruited into support networks. However, recruitment depended on who was available to provide support. Third, not everyone receives support. Findings revealed that 15 percent of seniors who had a social network reported receiving no support, while nine percent who received support had few people who provided help with tasks like housework and shopping. While some of that group may not need support and/or are providing help to others, some seniors may have only one or two people to rely on. Fourth, rural older adults are not passive receivers of support. Many provide a high number of tasks to family and friends, helping build social ties and maintain supportive relationships. These findings point to the need for rural communities to be vigilant about evolving support needs of older residents. If seniors have few people who provide them with support, or if they rely on non-kin, who will provide care if needed? Services will be needed to fill the gap, and these services are not always available in rural areas.

The purpose of this study was to investigate concurrent and prospective relationships between psychological distress and social support and substance abuse in a convenience sample of predominantly minority women with HIV in substance use recovery. This study involved a secondary analysis of data from a randomized controlled trial comparing a family therapy intervention and a group health intervention. Participants completed the Hamilton Depression and Anxiety Scales (psychological distress) and the Social Support Questionnaire (social support) at baseline and 4 months, 8 months, and 12 months post-baseline. Substance use over a 30-day period was measured by the Addiction Severity Index Lite, which was completed at baseline and at 2-month intervals post-baseline. A series of path analyses was used to test hypotheses generated from theory and empirical research. Results of the current investigation failed to reject the null hypothesis for the 6 hypotheses, and found only partial support for 2 hypotheses. Psychological distress was concurrently related to change in substance use only at 12 months (Hypotheses 1 and 2). Psychological distress was not related to social support, so there was no mediation of concurrent relationships (Hypothesis 3). Psychological distress was prospectively related to change in substance use that was measured 2 months after psychological distress was measured, but not change in substance use that was measured 4 months after psychological distress was measured (Hypothesis 4). Social support was not prospectively related to change in substance use that was measured either 2 months or 4 months after social support (Hypothesis 5). There was no evidence of mediation of prospective relationships (Hypothesis 6). These results were discussed within the context of relevant literature.

Recent evidence suggests that victims of dating violence consume alcohol at greater rates than their non-victimized peers, placing them at risk for the negative consequences produced by alcohol use. Thus, research is needed that examines factors that protect victims from consuming alcohol. Toward this end, the present study sought to examine if perceived and enacted support served as stress-buffering variables of the relationship between dating violence victimization and alcohol problems among a sample of currently dating college students. Partial support was found for the stress-buffering effect of perceived support, but findings did not support enacted support as a traditional stress-buffering variable. Implications of these findings for dating violence prevention programming are discussed.

Tidigare forskning har visat samband mellan socialt stöd och graden av känsla av sammanhang (KASAM), samt att upplevelsen av socialt stöd och hälsa kan skilja sig mellan olika kulturella kontexter. Syftet var att undersöka kulturella skillnader, mellan en individualistisk och kollektivistisk kultur, i sambandet mellan socialt stöd och graden av KASAM. I enkätundersökningen deltog 95 svenska och 92 japanska studenter. Resultatet visade att det fanns ett positivt samband mellan socialt stöd och graden av KASAM. Vidare hade svenska studenter med högt socialt stöd högre grad av KASAM än japanska studenter med högt socialt stöd. Undersökningen visade även att det fanns könsskillnader. Resultatet diskuteras utifrån de skillnader som hittats mellan svenska och japanska studenter.

Vilka psykologiska processer som gör att vissa individer klarar sig bättre än andra i påfrestande situationer har väckt allt större intresse hos forskarna. Syftet med den här studien var att undersöka vilken betydelse socialt stöd har för anpassningen till kronisk reumatisk sjukdom. Studien utfördes i form av tolv halvstrukturerade intervjuer. Analys av materialet som helhet antydde att intervjupersonerna ansåg att socialt stöd från omgivningen hade hjälpt dem att anpassa sig till sjukdomen. Vården, i form av bland annat läkare, framstod som ett särskilt viktigt socialt stöd. Även stödet från andra individer med liknande sjukdom lyftes fram som betydelsefull. Den största anpassningen till sjukdomen verkar ske de första åren, men tycks också därefter pågå fortlöpande.

Studenter i Sverige har visats vara en utsatt grupp för stress i samhället. Tidigare forskning har påvisat att en lägre stressupplevelse kan prediceras av individens kontrolluppfattning (locus of control), tillgång till socialt stöd och fysiska aktivitetsvanor. Studiens frågeställning gällde om kontroll-uppfattning, socialt stöd eller fysiska aktivitetsvanor var den starkaste prediktorn för en lägre stressupplevelse hos högskolestudenter. En enkät-undersökning mätte 119 högskolestudenters stressupplevelse, kontroll-uppfattning, sociala stöd och fysiska aktivitetsvanor. Enkla- samt multipla regressionsanalyser visade att kontrolluppfattning var den starkaste prediktorn för en lägre stressupplevelse hos studenter. Kontrolluppfattning var även den enda signifikanta prediktorn när socialt stöd och fysisk aktivitet inkluderades i analysen, vilket inte påvisats tidigare. Resultaten kan användas vid utvecklandet av praktiska åtgärder i syfte att reducera stress.

I tidigare forskning finns ett samband mellan socialt stöd och reducerad stress. Även husdjur påverkar stressnivån. Denna enkätstudie tittade på om husdjur och civilstånd påverkar hälsa och stressnivå. Av de studenter som deltog i studien hade 35% husdjur. Resultatet visade inte på någon effekt på stress av att ha husdjur. Personer med partner upplevde inte mindre stress än singlar. Huruvida deltagarna bodde med sin partner eller ej spelade ingen roll för stressnivån. Husdjursantalet påverkade inte stressupplevelsen. En interaktionseffekt påvisades: Yngre singlar och äldre personer med partner upplevde mer stress än vad yngre personer med partner och äldre singlar gjorde. Studiens resultat skiljer sig från vad tidigare forskning då inga huvudeffekter av husdjur och partner kunde påvisas.

With this study I wanted to capture the experience of support and increase the knowledge of what it means for women who are living with a husband who suffers from dementia. To do so I conducted four interviews and used an informal questionnaire. The result shows that there are four key words that can symbolize what the women experience as support: communica-tion, freedom, understanding and knowledge. The women’s experience of support range from meaningful and secure to not satisfying and complicated. Living with a husband who suffers from dementia has made their lives very different from before. But even if they sometimes are in a tough situation they want to take care of their husbands. Being able to go away a few hours or half a day once a week, can sometimes be enough and gives the women a sense of satisfaction. On the other hand it is not certain that the support offered is what the women need or that it is satisfactory for the husband. The link between the women’s experience of support and that of their husband is strong. And if the husband is not pleased nor will the wife be.