Study links social support to better mental and physical health

By Stephen Beech

Feeling supported by friends, family and colleagues boosts mental and physical health, according to new research.

Just knowing help is there makes all the difference - particularly for teenagers, say scientists.

Researchers found that people who feel they gave the backing of relatives, pals and workmates tend to have better mental health, perform more effectively at work and experience positive outcomes in other areas such as physical health and education.

Lead author Dr. GeckHong Yeo said: “This study underscores the importance of considering the associations between multiple types and sources of perceived social support and multiple domains of human thriving.

“Our findings also suggest that adolescents, in particular, can benefit from perceived social support – especially from parents – for improving physical health and reducing risk-taking behaviour.”

Dr. Yeo explained that researchers often talk about two types of social support: received support and perceived support.

Received support is about the actual help people get, while perceived support is the belief that help would be there if needed.

The researchers chose to focus on perceived social support for the study because previous evidence suggests it plays a more critical role in human thriving.

The team analyzed data from 604 previous studies, involving more than 894,000 participants, to explore how perceived social support influenced well-being in five areas: mental health, physical health, risk-taking behaviours, educational functioning and work performance.

More from this section

Dr. Past? Patients say visits to the doctor feel overly outdated

Identical twins thriving after life-saving womb surgery

Mom's Voice Boosts Baby's Speech Development In The Womb

The studies were conducted in more than 30 countries, including the UK, USA, the Netherlands, Germany, Canada, Korea, Hong Kong, Israel, Indonesia, Nigeria and Taiwan.

Most of the study participants (60%) were from the United States or countries in Europe.

Dr. Yeo, of the National University of Singapore, said: “On average, perceived social support had the largest associations with better mental health and better work performance.

“Perceived social support also demonstrated significant associations with better physical health, lower risk-taking behaviors, and better educational functioning.”

While there was no significant difference in the effect by gender, the study showed that the impact of perceived social support did vary by age and culture.

For example, having strong perceived support seemed to matter more for avoiding risky behaviour and staying physically healthy during childhood and adolescence than it did in adulthood.

And support was linked more strongly with doing well in school in non-Western cultures, while in Western cultures it was linked more strongly to work performance.

Dr. Yeo says the findings, published in the journal Psychological Bulletin, suggest that fostering strong social connections can enhance well-being and success across various life domains.

She said: “By identifying the types and sources of support that matter most, we can design targeted interventions to improve mental health, physical health and overall quality of life."

Dr Yeo added: “Our findings can help policymakers, health professionals and social service pro.viders build stronger support networks that promote thriving across different areas of life and contribute to overall well-being.”