Stress-buffering versus support erosion: Comparison of causal models of the relationship between social support and psychological distress in military spouses

Ross, A. M., Steketee, G., Emmert-Aronson, B. O., Brown, T. A., Muroff, J., & DeVoe, E. R. (2020). Stress-buffering versus support erosion: Comparison of causal models of the relationship between social support and psychological distress in military spouses. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 90(3), 361–373. https://doi.org/10.1037/ort0000438.

Social support can include social connectedness (i.e., contact with both formal and informal sources of social support), dyadic satisfaction (i.e., satisfaction with the support from one’s partner), and perceived social support (i.e., the level at which one believes they have someone to turn to in times of need). This study examined the link between social support and psychological well-being (i.e., anxiety and depressive symptoms) for 103 National Guard/Reserve military spouses by testing two competing hypotheses, the stress-buffering hypothesis and social erosion hypothesis. The stress-buffering hypothesis posits that social support protects individuals’ well-being from the detrimental effects of stress, whereas the support erosion hypothesis posits that psychological well-being concerns may reduce available social support. Longitudinal data (i.e., baseline and three-month follow up) were drawn from the Strong Families program. In support of the erosion hypothesis, military spouses’ psychological well-being at baseline was associated with their reduced social support three months later.

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