SOCIAL SUPPORT AND SOCIAL-STRUCTURE - A DESCRIPTIVE EPIDEMIOLOGY

Despite a very large and growing literature demonstrating the signific ance of social support for health and well-being, surprisingly little is known about the social distribution of this crucial resource. This paper presents data on the distribution of social support and support resources across social class, marital status, age and gender, with th e aims of contributing toward an understanding of the impact of social structures on processes of social support, and of assessing the hypot hesis that epidemiological variations in mental health arise partially from social support differences. The epidemiology of perceived social support was found to correspond closely to the epidemiology of psycho logical distress and disorder. The single exception involved gender, w here a positive rather than negative relationship was observed, with w omen demonstrating the highest levels of both social support and psych ological distress. The observed patterns of variation in social suppor t link this significant adaptive resource to one's locations in the so cial structure and reinforce the conclusion that it represents a promi sing intervention target. The practical importance of these results, h owever, are not matched by theoretical significance. Except in the cas e of marital status, our findings largely discount the hypothesis that the social distribution of mental health is partially attributable to social support differences.