Social support as an important protective factor

Social support is a multidimensional concept. So far not all its dimensions were investigated nor their part in conjunction with stress and disease. A bove all in investigations of the essence of action of the social support p rocess the wider social context where this process takes place must not be neglected. Despite the fact that the statement on the protective effect of social support is one of the pillars in research of stress, the results of investigations which attempted to provide evidence of this protective effec t are not unequivocal. Some investigations were unable to prove a positive effect, while others even indicate that social support may have a negative effect. Krause's investigations indicate that the positive influence of soc ial support in senior subjects is moderated by the socioeconomic status - i t is manifested in upper social classes but not in lower ones. So far nobod y studied the question whether this alarming finding applies also to other age groups. In the Czech science, the complex systematic research of social support is still in its infancy. However, with respect to proceeding socio economic differentiation of the society, where some stressors and their lat ent negative impacts will be ever more apparently socially distributed, res earch of social support as well as other protective factors is of high impo rtance.