title: Social support attenuates the harmful effects of stress in healthy adult women.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that social support buffers the effects of perceived stress on physical symptoms in healthy women.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study was conducted in the Southwest United States and data were collected from 2006 to 2010. Participants were 52 healthy adult women who completed a baseline questionnaire and a 21-day daily diary. Social support was assessed in the baseline questionnaire and perceived stress and physical symptoms were assessed in the daily diary. Multilevel analyses were used to predict both same day and next day physical symptoms from baseline social support and daily perceived stress.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The hypotheses were supported when predicting both same and next day physical symptoms. For the same day, perceived stress and the social support × perceived stress interaction were both related to physical symptoms. For the next day, the social support × perceived stress interaction but not perceived stress was related to physical symptoms when controlling for previous day physical symptoms. The interactions were such that women higher in social support had smaller increases in same and next day physical symptoms on days of higher perceived stress than women lower in social support.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Social support may buffer the effects of daily perceived stress on physical symptoms in healthy women. Future research should investigate what aspects and in what contexts social support may reduce the effects of perceived stress on physical symptoms and examine how social support may affect the development of long-term health problems through increases in daily physical symptoms.
authors.affiliation: University of New Mexico, Department of Psychology, MSC03 2220, 1 University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, United States. Electronic address: steine@unm.edu.
authors.forename: Elizabeth R
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: Stein
authors.affiliation: University of New Mexico, Department of Psychology, MSC03 2220, 1 University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, United States. Electronic address: bwsmith@unm.edu.
authors.forename: Bruce W
authors.initials: BW
authors.lastname: Smith
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D012944:Social Support; D015206:Southwestern United States; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016387:Women's Health
keywords: Daily diary; Healthy women; Perceived stress; Physical symptoms; Social support