Multiple Measures of Family and Social Support as Predictors of Psychological Well-Being: An Additive Approach

The purpose of this study was to (1) examine the direct relations of multiple sources of social support on psychological well-being and (2) to examine the utility of an additive model on these variables, in a sample of 251 participants from a Southwestern Georgia University. The sources of support included family environment, friendship, family and significant other support, father’s bonding and mother’s bonding. Measures of psychological well-being included the summed total of Ryff’s Scale of Psychological Well-Being (PWB), as well as self-confidence-an additional measure of psychological well-being. In addition to direct effects, it was hypothesized that having multiple, rather than fewer sources of support would be more beneficial to an individual. Hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to test the unique variability each variable added, as well as to determine whether the additive model predicted PWB above and beyond singular sources of support. Results revealed that the hypotheses predicting direct relationships between the social supports of interest and PWB were largely supported by the data with the exception of father bonding. Results for the additive model revealed mixed results, indicating that having numerous concurrent support lines are beneficial in certain cases. The importance of having multiple social supports from which one can rely, especially when dealing with stressors and crises are also expressed.