Manyresearches were carried out on social support in relation to differentvariables and perceived stress in relation to different variables and also bothsocial support and perceived stress in relation to other variables.
Aresearch on social support and health claims that social support can eithergenerally prevent negative health consequences or can serve as a buffer inspecific stress situations. (Schwarzer, &Leppin 1989).In the 1970s, following the publicationof influential papers by authors such as Caplan (1974), Cassel (1976), and Cobb(1976), investigators began to study social support (Norbeck, 1988). Oneoft-cited early study highlighted the potential importance of social support inpregnancy by considering social support as an element of “psychosocial assets”and showing that pregnant women with a combination of high life stress and fewpsychosocial assets experienced more pregnancy complications than did womenwith low life stress and a higher level of psychosocial assets (Nuckolls,Cassel, & Kaplan, 1972). Since then, a number of studies have attempted toclarify the role of social support in pregnancy outcomes. Psychosocialfactors such as stress or social support have been shown to significantlyinfluence pregnancy outcomes, independent of biomedical factors or variables (Dunkel-Schetter,C., et.
al., 1996).A study on college students examined the relationship betweenself-esteem, family support, peer support and program utilization and academicand social adjustment and college commitment indicated that students whoreported higher levels of self-esteem and more peer support had better academicand social support, students who utilized student support services andcounselling reported higher social adjustment and those students who were moreadjusted to campus life were more likely to be committed to their universityand their goals. (Grant-Vallone, E., e. al., 2003).
Asample of 99 women was studied prospectively from the second trimester ofpregnancy until nine weeks postpartum. Depressed and non-depressed womenidentified at (1) the second-trimester assessment and (2) the postpartumassessments were compared on measures of stressful life events and socialsupport provided by their spouses and close confidants. Nine percent of womenduring pregnancy and 12% of women after delivery were depressed. Womenexperiencing postpartum depression reported more stressful life events and lesssupport from their spouses after delivery than the women not experiencingpostpartum depression. Women experiencing depression during pregnancy reportedsomewhat less support from their spouses and more support from their confidantsthan non-depressed women.
The results of the study suggest that differentcauses may be responsible for prepartum and postpartum depression. (O’Hara, 1986).A study on the role of motivation, parental-support,peer-support and environmental social support in academic success of ethnicminority 1st-generation college students found that the personal(or) career related motivation to attend college during fall was a positivepredictor and the negative predictor of college adjustment in the followingspring was the lack of peer support. (Dennis, J. M.
, Phinney, J. S., , L. I.
, 2005).A study examined the relationship between the usage ofFacebook (popular social network site) and the formation and the maintenance ofsocial capital in college students and found that use of Facebook has a strongassociation with the bridging social support and also that usage of Facebookwas beneficial for users experiencing low self-esteem and low lifesatisfaction. (Ellison, N. B., Steinfield, C., & Lampe, C., 2007).A study on college students’ wellbeing, influencing theirrole of generational status, self-esteem, academic self-efficacy and perceivedsocial support found that the 1st-generation students reported with moresomatic symptoms and lower levels of academic self-efficacy in comparison tothe non-1st- generation students and also the students’ generationalstatus had moderate predictive effects of perceived family support on stress.
(Wang,C. C. D., & Castañeda?Sound, C., 2008).A comparative study of American and Korean students’ culturaldifference in motivations for using social networking-sites found that the Koreancollege students emphasised more on obtaining social support whereas theAmerican college students emphasised on seeking entertainment and also theAmerican students’ networks are far larger than their Korean counterparts in anonline social venue reflecting the cultural differences between the twocountries. (Kim, Y.
, Sohn, D., & Choi, S. M.
, 2011). A Study on Early Adolescence to examine the relation of stressfullife events and social supportsto psychological distress and school performance both stress and supportvariables making significant contributions to the prediction of subsequentpsychological distress. Stresses, but not supports, made a significantcontribution to the prediction of subsequent school performance. Evidence forreciprocal and interactive linkages was also found, including effects ofpsychological distress and school performance on subsequent stresses andsupports, and greater adaptive impact of school-based supportive resourcesunder conditions of heightened risk outside of school.
Implications forecological and transactional models of development relating to the targetingand efficacy of preventive efforts are discussed. (DuBois, D. L., et.al.,1992)Previous studies on the effects of burnout and perceivedstress on cortisol levels revealed that cortisol levels show a significantincrease after awakening, with high intra individual stability.
Perceivedstress correlated with increases of cortisol levels. (Pruessner, J. C., et.
al., 1999).A study on English-fluency, social support satisfaction andsocial connectedness as predictors of acculturative stress on internationalstudents indicated that the students from Europe experienced less acculturativestress in comparison to the students of Asia, Central/Latin America and Africa (Yeh, C. J., & Inose, M., 2003).A study on African American young adults examined thedirect and indirect relationships among racial identity, racial discrimination,perceived stress, and psychological distress in a sample of 555 AfricanAmerican young adults. A prospective study design was used to assess theinfluence of two dimensions of racial identity attitudes (i.
e., centrality andpublic regard) on other study variables to investigate the relationship betweenracial identity attitudes and psychological distress. The results showed someevidence of a direct relationship between racial centrality and psychologicaldistress, as well as evidence of indirect relationships for both centrality andpublic regard through the impact of racial discrimination and perceived stress.
In addition, racial centrality was both a risk factor for experiencingdiscrimination and a protective factor in buffering the negative impact ofdiscrimination on psychological distress. (Sellers,R. M., 2003).
Astudy on Swiss police officers examined how a specific shift system wasassociated with stress, sleep and health among police officers. Moreover, thisstudy investigated whether gender moderated the association between shift workand stress, sleep and health. Additional analyses were performed to find outhow stress and shift work interact in explaining sleep and health. Shift workwas associated with increased social stress, work discontent and sleepcomplaints. In turn, shift workers reported decreased use of primary healthcare. Moreover, stress was associated with increased sleep complaints and lowerscores in perceived health.
The interplay between stress and shift work did notproduce any significant effects. (Gerber, M.,2010).Another study on the relation between heart rate variability,trait anxiety and perceived stress in physically fit men and women states that,the relationshipwas independent of age, gender, trait anxiety, and cardiorespiratory fitness.It was also independent of heart rate; mean arterial blood pressure; andrespiration rate, factors which can influence heart rate variability and mightbe elevated among people reporting anxiety and perceived stress. Also the vagalmodulation of heart period appears to be sensitive to the recent experience ofpersistent emotional stress, regardless of a person’s level of physical fitnessand disposition toward experiencing anxiety.
(Dishman,R. K., 2000).A study on adults with problematic levels of stress relatedto chronic illness, chronic pain and other life circumstances showed that Mindfulness skills and perceived stress both changedsignificantly from pre-treatment to post-treatment. Significant increases inmindfulness occurred by the second week of the program, whereas significantimprovements in perceived stress did not occur until week 4. Extent of changein mindfulness skills during the first three weeks predicted change inperceived stress over the course of the intervention.
(Baer, R. A., Carmody, J., & Hunsinger, M.
, 2012).A study on college students’ academic stress and its relationto their anxiety, time management and leisure satisfaction was carried out inwhich time management behaviours had a great effect on academic stress than theleisure satisfaction activities. Regarding the gender differences among thestudents, girls experienced higher academic stress and anxiety but were good attime management behaviours; boys were good at leisure satisfaction activities.
(Misra, R., & McKean, M., 2000).
A study on the effect of evaluation of body/mind interventionto reduce psychological distress and perceived stress in college students. Theresults showed a fall in students’ psychological distress, state anxiety andperceived stress levels. (Deckro, G. R., et. al.
, 2002).Since this research study focuses on the receiving of socialsupport and the perception of stress among under-graduate students, it aims tostudy how social support plays a role in the change of perception of stress inthem. It is a comparative study between under-graduate boys and girls.
