title: Target populations of nursing research on social support.
abstract: Nurses contribute to the social support field primarily through study of clinical and community populations. A review of the target populations identified in 63 empirical studies of social support conducted in the past decade revealed that nurses have, to date, studied populations central to their profession's activities and concerns. They have uniquely focused on surgical patients, the chronically ill, expectant couples and parents of infants, the bereaved, and lay caregivers. These target groups have suffered from maturational (transitional) and/or situational stressors. However, some at-risk groups have been overlooked; in particular, children, males only, native peoples, the poor, the unemployed, and the victims of child and elder abuse. Nurses practice in diverse institutional and community-based sites, and hence have direct contact with all these population groups. Once the features of a population that make it a fruitful focus of study by nurse investigators are identified, pertinent interventions can be tested.
authors.affiliation: Dalhousie University, School of Nursing, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Stewart
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D002669:Child Welfare; D002908:Chronic Disease; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D015399:Nursing Research; D012931:Social Environment; D012944:Social Support; D013514:Surgical Procedures, Operative / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000523:psychology; D014478:Unemployment