Relational Maintenance and Social Support in the Aftermath of Sudden and Expected Death

Bereavement is a state of grieving after the loss of a loved one. Past research has suggested that bereavement is particularly challenging, both physically and emotionally, in the aftermath of unexpected death. Here, we examine bereavement in which death occurred suddenly, compared to a chronic condition where death was expected, in terms of perceived social support and relational maintenance with the deceased in the form of imagined interactions and social media interactions. Results indicated that individuals experiencing sudden death bereavement were more likely to engage in both postmortem relational maintenance techniques and perceived less social support than individuals in the expected death bereavement group. Results are discussed in terms of previous findings.     

Social support within an on-line cancer community: an assessment of emotional support,perceptions of advantages and disadvantages,and motives for using the community from a communication perspective

This study investigated an on-line cancer support community emphasizing communication concerns important to the community administrators. The researcher conducted an on-line survey of participants (N v = v 103) focused on their on-line communication activities and social support. The results indicate a modest negative correlation between emotional support received on-line and perceived stress, differences in emotional support scores based on perceptions of disadvantages of on-line support groups, and different motives for using the community between people with cancer and family members. The study also describes suggestions based on the results that were made to community administrators and which could be used by other on-line support communities.     

An Examination of Support (In)Adequacy: Types,Sources, and Consequences of Social Support among Infertile Women

This study investigated gaps between the supportive communication people desire and receive in the context of infertility. Our findings advance the notion of support adequacy by positioning social support as a dynamic resource that is contributed to from a variety of sources in numerous ways. A community sample of 301 infertile women indicated that they experience discrepancies in the support they desire compared to what they receive from their spouses, friends and family, medical professionals, and online sources. Participants experienced the most discrepancies from medical professionals, and in almost all of these discrepancies people desired more support than they received. The magnitude of the gap between people's desires and what they receive corresponds with evaluations of support quality.     

The Social Dimension of Blogging about Health: Health Blogging,Social Support,and Well-being

The study reported here explored the social dimension of health-related blogs by examining blogging as a means to marshal social support and, as a result, achieve some of the health benefits associated with supportive communication. A total of 121 individuals who author a blog dedicated to their experience living with a specific health condition completed the study questionnaire. The number of blog posts made by respondents and proportion of posts with reader comments were positively associated with perceived social support from blog readers. The relationship between blog reader support and two outcomes related to well-being depended upon the support available in bloggers' strong-tie relationships with family and friends. Consistent with the social compensation (i.e., “poor get richer”) perspective, blog reader support was negatively associated with loneliness and positively associated with personal growth when support in strong-tie relationships was relatively lacking.     

Intergenerational Support and the Role of Grandparents in Post-Divorce Families: Retrospective Accounts of Young Adult Grandchildren

The purpose of the current study was to examine grandparent support to grandchildren following the divorce of parents. Participants (N = 42) responded to questions focusing on the enactment of support and relationships with grandparents. Through these retrospective, self-report accounts, six categories of grandparent support were identified. Additionally, four barriers to grandparent support emerged from the responses of the grandchildren. These categories of and barriers to intergenerational social support are discussed as they relate to characteristics and expectations of provided support in post-divorce families.     

Construction and validation of a communication based emotional support scale

A review of the emotional support and social support literature indicates a paucity of instruments which directly measure the phenomena of interest. While many have utilized assessments of “strong” or “weak” links between relational partners, they have not examined the communication modalities specifically. They have also tended to view emotional support as a unilateral product of a source or receiver rather than a product of communicative interactions. In order to examine support more carefully, a unidimensional instrument was developed to measure the communication of emotional support in relationships. As tests of convergent validity, it was suggested that perceptions of emotional support will be positively correlated to perceptions of relational solidarity and relational quality. The final instrument consisted of 13 communication based items with high reliability and evidence of internal, face, and convergent validity.     

Esteem Support Messages Received during the Job Search: A Test of the CETESM

The current study extends research on the Cognitive-Emotional Theory of Esteem Support Messages (CETESM) and examines the role of esteem support during the job search. Unemployed, underemployed, and/or displaced job seekers (N=197) recalled an esteem support message they had received during their job search. Messages were coded using a scheme derived from the CETESM. Results indicate that helpful messages (i.e., those that enhanced state self-esteem related to the job search) were significantly more likely than unhelpful messages to contain message features predicted by the CETESM. Helpful messages were also associated with greater job search activity than were unhelpful messages. Theoretical implications, as well as pragmatic implications for those who wish to support job seekers, are discussed.     

Influence of Social Identity on Self-Efficacy Beliefs Through Perceived Social Support: A Social Identity Theory Perspective

While much research documents the influence of self-efficacy on enactment of health behaviors, relatively less attention has been given to the factors that influence self-efficacy. To enhance our understanding of the various sources of self-efficacy, this study integrated social identity theory into this context and proposed and tested a model, which describes a process through which social identity can influence self-efficacy of engaging in health-related behaviors. Consistent with the proposed meditational model, the findings showed that individuals who had stronger social identity with a given social group perceived greater social support from the group, which in turn predicted higher self-efficacy of engaging in a health-related behavior advocated by the group, and ultimately predicted greater behavioral intention. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Enacted Support and Well-Being: A Test of the Mediating Role of Perceived Control

This study examined the unique effects of three forms of enacted (i.e., received) support (emotional, unpaid assistance, financial) on well-being and tested the potential mediating role of perceived control. The analysis was based on a national sample collected through the second wave of the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) survey conducted in 2004–2006. Findings revealed emotional support exhibited a positive effect direction on well-being, while unpaid assistance and financial support both showed negative effect directions. Perceived control was found to fully mediate the relationships between all three forms of enacted support and well-being: Emotional support boosted well-being through higher perceived control, while unpaid assistance and financial support reduced well-being through lower perceived control. Findings provide evidence that effects of social resources on well-being are mediated through psychological resources.     

决策支持情报系统的四维结构分析

决策支持系统是本世纪７０年代中期在管理信息系统的基础上发展起来的一种面向决策工作的高级情报分析系统。本文在分析决策支持系统理论与开发研究成果的基础上，运用系统分析的方法，提出决策支持系统的四维结构观点，对全面而系统地认识决策支持系统的研究领域提供了一种综合观点和方法     

Planning Improves Vocal Fluency and the Appearance of Concern When Communicating Emotional Support

Emotional support is often conveyed to people with cancer; however, not all support messages are effective, leading some potential supporters to fear appearing incompetent when communicating support. Additionally, nonverbal behaviors, such as vocal fluency, pitch variety, eye contact, and conveying concern, have previously been associated with support recipients’ outcomes and perceptions of speaker competence. This experiment determines whether these nonverbal behaviors can be increased through message planning. Participants were randomly assigned to either a planning condition or a distraction task condition before recording emotional support messages for a friend hypothetically diagnosed with cancer. Results showed that planners spoke with significantly more vocal fluency and conveyed significantly more nonverbal concern than nonplanners. Planners also used more eye contact and pitch variety than nonplanners, but these differences were not statistically significant. Results suggest that planning may improve some nonverbal aspects of communicating support, which may in turn improve perceptions of supporters’ competence.     

The Effects of Social Support,Depression, and Stress on Drinking Behaviors in a College Student Sample

Social support research contends that supportive interactions provide a buffer wherein individuals are protected from increased risk due to negative affect. The present study investigated the relationships between social support and college students' stress, depression, and alcohol use. A total of 54 students completed questionnaires in exchange for extra course credit. Results demonstrated that stress and depression were correlated with one another and that social support was negatively correlated with each of these outcomes. Depression, but not stress, was correlated with increased drinking behavior. Overall, social support was negatively correlated with alcohol consumption; however, depression moderated the effect of social support such that support and alcohol consumption were negatively correlated for participants with higher depression whereas support and alcohol consumption were positively correlated for individuals with lower depression. These findings partially confirm existing theories of alcohol use that hypothesize differences between self-medicating drinkers and social, sensation-seeking drinkers.     

Attachment and Relational Satisfaction: The Mediating Effect of Emotional Communication

This study investigated associations among one partner's relational satisfaction and the other partner's style of attachment and emotional communication. Findings from a questionnaire study involving 581 couples showed that participants reported more relational satisfaction when their partners scored high in security and low in dismissiveness and preoccupation. These associations between one's relational satisfaction and the partner's attachment style were partially mediated by how the partner reported communicating emotions. Specifically, participants were less satisfied in relationships with preoccupied partners who reported expressing anger using destructive communication. Participants were less satisfied with dismissive partners who reported using detached emotional communication. Finally, participants were more satisfied with secure partners who reported using prosocial emotional communication. These findings suggest that the often-cited relationship between attachment and relational satisfaction is partially explained by emotional communication.     

Communication Skills,Social Support,and Burnout among Advocates in a Domestic Violence Agency

Intimate partner violence affects millions of lives annually. Domestic violence advocates work to alleviate this problem; yet the nature of the work leaves them vulnerable to negative outcomes such as burnout. This study examined the relationships between communication anxiety, communication competence, perceived social support, and feelings of burnout among domestic violence advocates. Results from a survey of 69 individuals recruited from a US domestic violence agency show the combination of communication anxiety, communication competence, perceived emotional support, and perceived informational support accounted for approximately 13% of the variance in advocates' emotional exhaustion and 21% of the variance in advocates' experiences of reduced personal accomplishment. Responses also differ with the advocate's position in the agency. The following recommendations are offered: develop scenario-based communication skills training programs to reduce communication anxiety and increase communication competence, hold regular debriefing meetings to help advocates process their experiences and to receive peer support, and develop formalized mentoring programs that can provide social support for new workers.     

Explaining Gender Differences in the Perception of Support Availability: The Mediating Effects of Construct Availability and Accessibility

Perceived support availability (PSA), a general belief about the likelihood that social support will be available when needed, is associated with numerous processes and outcomes of supportive communication. Currently, however, there is little understanding of the factors that contribute to this belief. Numerous studies have reported gender differences in PSA, with women generally indicating that they see support as more available than do men; in turn, gender differences in PSA have been cited to explain gender differences in the production and interpretation of supportive messages. In an effort to explain gender differences in PSA and, more broadly, understand the social-cognitive factors that contribute to individual differences in PSA, this article proposes and reports a test of a theoretical model that treats PSA as the outcome of the availability and accessibility of cognitive schemata for construing social situations. Participants (150 men and 271 women) completed instruments providing assessments of PSA, construct availability (cognitive complexity), and construct accessibility (expressive and instrumental orientations). Bootstrap procedures for the simultaneous assessment of multiple mediators found that construct accessibility generally was a stronger mediator of gender differences in PSA than construct availability. However, a cooperative suppression effect was found for 1 index of construct accessibility, complicating the interpretation of mediation effects.     

A Review and Meta-Analysis of Person-Centered Messages and Social Support Outcomes

Person-centered messages are a form of social support that has been theoretically and empirically linked to a variety of outcomes. Scholars would benefit by recognizing the influence of person-centered messages across a number of studies in the absence of statistical artifacts. This article reports a meta-analysis testing the association between person-centered messages and social support outcomes across 23 studies. Our results demonstrate a positive linear association between person-centeredness and actual effectiveness, and an even stronger linear relationship between person-centeredness and perceived effectiveness. The association between person-centeredness and support outcomes was attenuated in confederate-based methodologies. Moreover, the data suggest that scholars need to more precisely conceptualize and empirically assess the differences between the nine levels of the person-centered hierarchy.     

信息过载、文献保障和小型高校图书馆

通过对几篇文献的介绍,结合图书馆的实际情况,指出信息过载和文献保障不足有时是同时存在的,并针对小型高校图书馆的能力和任务,讨论了小型高校图书馆新的服务目标和服务方式。     

美国大学图书馆支持教学科研的全方位举措

通过访问美国7所名校图书馆,对美国大学图书馆服务教学、科研的方式方法进行了重点考察和研究,并重点介绍了宾夕法尼亚大学图书馆在学科馆员和知识服务、文献资源和硬件支持等方面的举措。     

社会性网络服务用户使用激励因素研究——基于U&G理论的社会化视角

本文从使用与满足(Uses and Gratifications,U&G)理论的社会化视角出发,探讨社会性网络服务(So-cial Networking Service,SNS)用户从哪些特定使用能够获得社会化满足,分析他们与SNS用户的访问频率、使用时长之间的相关关系,进而把握SNS用户使用的激励因素与行为规律。作者选择本土领先的社会性网络服务——人人网用户为研究对象,通过问卷方法进行数据收集,并且对于模型进行实证检验与分析。实证结果表明:旧关系维持、信息分享是SNS用户社会化满足的两个重要来源,并且激励用户经常、长时间地访问社会性网络服务;自我展现也是SNS用户社会化满足的重要来源,会促使用户经常性访问,但是并不会占有用户太多时间;新关系建立并不会导致用户社会化满足,也并非实际使用的激励因素。