title: The influence of social support and problematic support on optimism and depression in chronic illness: a prospective study evaluating self-esteem as a mediator.
abstract: The present study focused on the mechanism through which social and problematic support affects psychological adjustment in chronic illness. The authors hypothesized that self-esteem would mediate the relations between social and problematic support and adjustment. Eighty-six end-stage renal disease patients were assessed twice for social support problematic support, and self-esteem. Adjustment was assessed twice by depression and optimism. Mediational analyses indicated that social support operated through self-esteem to influence optimism cross-sectionally and prospectively and depression cross-sectionally. Social support was associated with high self-esteem, which in turn increased optimism and was related to decreased depression. Problematic support was unrelated to self-esteem obviating mediational analysis. Disaggregating social support into subscales showed that belonging support predicted decreases in depression, and both tangible and belonging support predicted increases in optimism.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology,State University of New York at Stony Brook, 11794-2500, USA. pls@berkeleycollege.edu
authors.forename: Petra
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Symister
authors.forename: Ronald
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Friend
mesh_terms: D001294:Attitude to Health; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000209:etiology* / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007676:Kidney Failure, Chronic / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012649:Self Concept; D012917:Social Adjustment; D012944:Social Support; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires