Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Social Support And Health Behaviors, Bryan Michael Kingry

Wayne State University Dissertations

Empirical evidence exists showing a correlation between social support and health behaviors. However, does social support act the same across several health behaviors? The purpose of this study was to determine if social support has an impact across diet, physical activity and smoking in adults. The participants were 2,821 adults over the age of 40 from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2005-2006, NHANES III). Multiple regression models were used to explore such a correlation. The findings suggest that social support does not act the same across varying health behaviors. The findings also suggest that educational attainment was the …