Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Exploring Actual Social Support Using The Social Convoy Model To Assess The Impact On Depression In Adolescents, Chris Hansen

Masters Theses

The current study set out to better understand the differences between availability of support and received support and explore the relation between social support and depression in late adolescents. One hundred and forty participants were recruited from a northwest suburb high school and a college from the eastern central part of Illinois. A social network was formed for each participant using a mapping technique from the Social Convoy Model. The received support measure, the UCLA Social Support Inventory, was used to assess the amount of received support participants identified from their social network. Participants completed the Late Adolescent Social Support …

Social Support In An Internet-Based Weight Loss Intervention Among College Students, Yijia Zhang

Masters Theses

Objective: To assess college students’ perceptions regarding online social support in an 8-week Internet-based weight loss intervention.

Participants: Participants were those randomized to the intervention group of an online weight loss intervention targeting overweight and obese college students.

Methods: Members of the intervention group had access to a private discussion forum and weekly live chat sessions, allowing for anonymous interactions. Following the 8-week intervention, intervention group members were invited to complete an online focus group, discussing these tools. The transcripts were directly copied from the live chat conversation history. Using thematic analysis, perceptions regarding online social support were identified, coded …

I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends: A Qualitative Study Of Nurse Close Work Friendship And Social Support, Jennifer Ptacek

Masters Theses

The nursing profession is laden with numerous job, emotional labor, and communication stressors, which come from both patients and healthcare organizations. These frequent and simultaneous pressures can result in nurse burnout and turnover (Tracy, 2009). Socially supportive workplace communication has been identified as a solution to reducing nurse stress, burnout, and turnover (Apker & Ray, 2003), but has not specifically considered social support in nurse work friendships. A mixed qualitative method study was conducted with five nurse best friend pairs, using job observations of participants’ work friendship communication and individual and joint interviews. Two major communication themes emerged from the …

The Diabetes Partner Support Questionnaire: Psychometric Scale Development, Katie Cassandra Wischkaemper

Masters Theses

This study examines the effects of social support, specifically from intimate, committed partners, for individuals with type 2 diabetes. Integrating social learning theory and health, this study aims to develop a measure of the frequency of diabetes-specific supportive behaviors and the perceived quality of those behaviors as perceived by patients with diabetes (Bandura, 1977). Developing a psychometrically sound instrument will assist future research examining intimate relationships and diabetes-related health outcomes. The Diabetes Partner Support Questionnaire (DPSQ), contains modified items from a scale measuring parental support for children with type 1 diabetes (La Greca & Bearman, 2002). The present study involved …

Maternal Responsiveness In Infancy And Early Childhood Among A Burundian Refugee Community, Erin Lane Gangaware

Masters Theses

Post-migration contexts often provide many challenges for refugee families’ integration into a host society such as language barriers, mental and physical illness, social and community relationships (Berry, 2001; Daud, 2008; Weine, 2011). Traumatic life events, loss, and depression have all been shown to negatively impact parenting (Daud, Skoglund, & Rydelius; Diener, Nievar, & Wright, 2003, Evans, 2006; Garmezy, 1987). These environmental and emotional factors often prevent parents from providing adequate care. Not only does the quality of parenting affect children’s social-emotional development, many contextual factors such as family SES, social supports, and neighborhood have also been shown to impact social-emotional …

Dating Violence Victimization And Alcohol Problems: An Examination Of Social Support’S Stress-Buffering Hypothesis, Ryan Christopher Shorey

Masters Theses

Recent evidence suggests that victims of dating violence consume alcohol at greater rates than their non-victimized peers, placing them at risk for the negative consequences produced by alcohol use. Thus, research is needed that examines factors that protect victims from consuming alcohol. Toward this end, the present study sought to examine if perceived and enacted support served as stress-buffering variables of the relationship between dating violence victimization and alcohol problems among a sample of currently dating college students. Partial support was found for the stress-buffering effect of perceived support, but findings did not support enacted support as a traditional stress-buffering …