Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsWhat Is Social Support?Types of Social SupportHow Does Social Support Reduce StressHow to Get More Social Support

Table of ContentsView All

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Table of Contents

What Is Social Support?

Types of Social Support

How Does Social Support Reduce Stress

How to Get More Social Support

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Statistics suggest that too many of us are under too muchstress. According to the 2022 APA Stress in America survey, 27% of American adults say they are frequently so stressed that they cannot function.When stress makes us want to shut down, having people to turn to might be the key.

Social supportis critical for mental well-being. We are social creatures, and having people to care for, support us, and share our lives is a source of joy and connection. It turns out social support doesn’t just make us happy; it also helps minimize theeffects of stress.

At a GlanceHaving social support in your life can help create a buffer against stress. When you’re coping with daily stressors and significant challenges, being able to turn to different people in your life—including your friends, family, colleagues, healthcare professionals, and others in your community—can make things a little easier to bear. Instead of turning to unhealthy coping methods, you’re more likely to manage stresses in ways that support long-term health.

At a Glance

Having social support in your life can help create a buffer against stress. When you’re coping with daily stressors and significant challenges, being able to turn to different people in your life—including your friends, family, colleagues, healthcare professionals, and others in your community—can make things a little easier to bear. Instead of turning to unhealthy coping methods, you’re more likely to manage stresses in ways that support long-term health.

Social support refers to a network of friends, family, and other community members who can respond with help in times of need.

These are the people we talk to when we are having problems. The ones we turn to when we need help with a task. The people willing to lend their resources, time, effort, or information when we need help.

Not alltypes of social supportare the same. The type you need often depends on thekind of stress you are dealing with. Here are some of the main types you’ll often need in your life.

Emotional Social Support

Emotional social support is all about affirming our worth and showing concern about how we feel.  In other words, emotional support shows us that there are people who care.

Showing someone emotional support often involves listening withempathy,validating emotions, and telling people how much they are valued. Sometimes, it’s as simple as giving someone a shoulder to cry on.

Informational Social Support

Informational social support happens when someone shares advice or information to help us cope with something stressful or challenging. When we don’t quite know how to handle it, turning to a more knowledgeable or experienced person in our support circle can give us the information we need to respond and cope.

This includes offering advice that people may find helpful, pointing people to experts who may provide advice, and sharing experiences.

Tangible Social Support

Tangible social support includes sharing resources, either material or financial. Obviously, this can include providing loans of monetary gifts, but it can also involve offers to share childcare duties, helping a friend move, or even bringing a casserole to a grieving family.

Belonging Social Support

Belongingsocial support involves providing social leisure and belonging. This means including friends in the group, and spending time with friends who need support and may feel alone.

So why is social support one of the best ways to help reduce stress? There are actually many reasons.

It Leads to Healthier Behaviors

Research has found that people who have healthy social networks are more likely to make better healthy choices.They are more likely to exercise and eat a healthy diet. They are also less likely to turn to unhealthy coping methods, like smoking, drinking, or using drugs.

It Buffers Against Stress

Social support is also believed to help create a buffer against stress. Having supportive connections is linked to lower levels of depression and workplaceburnout.

It’s also positively linked to better physical and mental health. In one study, high social support levels were associated with reduced blood pressure.

It Reduces Loneliness and Social Isolation

Lonelinessand social isolation are associated with a wide range of health problems. According to the American Medical Association, this includes an increased risk of stroke, heart disease, depression, and death.

Unfortunately, statistics suggest that there are more lonely people than ever before. It’s such a growing health concern that the U.S. Surgeon General, Vivek H. Murthy, MD, has released an advisory on the health effects of the epidemic of loneliness and isolation.

One 2021 survey found that 36% of all adults and 61% of young adults experienced serious loneliness.

That’s why it’s important to remember that you need a support system. Even if you tend to be anintrovertwho preferssolitude, you still need connections and support.

The Impact of Social Isolation on Mental Health

How to Find Social Support

The good news is that you don’t need a huge social circle to reap the stress-busting rewards of social support. The key is to forge high-quality, nurturing connections. Your social support network can be small but mighty.

If you want to grow your social support system, there are things you can do to ensure you have the right kind of support when you need it.

Remember, social support can come from many places. It’s good to have close friends you can talk to anything about, but social support can also come from neighbors, co-workers, church members, or medical professionals.

Reconnect With Old Friends

Sometimes the best place to start is to reestablish connections with people you’ve lost touch with. Look up old friends or classmates on social media and reach out. See if they’d like to get together or chat on the phone.

Make New Connections

It can help to widen your search to consider options you might not have thought of in the past. Attending community events like book readings, plays, and musical performances can also be a great way to meet people andmake friends as an adult.

Take Care of Your Relationships

Caring for and preserving yourinterpersonal relationshipsis the key to maintaining a solid social support system. That means sharing things about yourself and listening to what they have to say.

It is also crucial to show respect, think about their feelings, and reach out and support them when they need it.

What This Means For YouSocial support can be great for stress levels, making stressful situations less damaging to your mental and physical health. Creating acircle of supportive friendsmay take a little effort, but the benefits for your health and well-being are worth it. Creating strong relationships in your life is vital for you and for those you love.

What This Means For You

Social support can be great for stress levels, making stressful situations less damaging to your mental and physical health. Creating acircle of supportive friendsmay take a little effort, but the benefits for your health and well-being are worth it. Creating strong relationships in your life is vital for you and for those you love.

18 Effective Stress Relief Strategies

11 SourcesVerywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.American Psychological Association.Stress in America 2022.Uzuki T, Konta T, Saito R, et al.Relationship between social support status and mortality in a community-based population: a prospective observational study (Yamagata study).BMC Public Health. 2020;20(1):1630. doi:10.1186/s12889-020-09752-9Vila J.Social support and longevity: Meta-analysis-based evidence and psychobiological mechanisms.Front Psychol. 2021;12:717164. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.717164Evans R, Katz CC, Fulginiti A, Taussig H.Sources and types of social supports and their association with mental health symptoms and life satisfaction among young adults with a history of out-of-home care.Children (Basel). 2022;9(4):520. doi:10.3390/children9040520Crookes DM, Shelton RC, Tehranifar P, et al.Social networks and social support for healthy eating among Latina breast cancer survivors: Implications for social and behavioral interventions.J Cancer Surviv. 2016;10(2):291–301. doi:10.1007/s11764-015-0475-6Button P, Fallon L, Fowler K.The impact of perceived social support and coping on distress in a sample of Atlantic Canadian health professional students during COVID-19 compared to pre-COVID peers.BMC Psychol. 2023;11(1):175. doi:10.1186/s40359-023-01218-yHarding BN, Hawley CN, Kalinowski J, et al.Relationship between social support and incident hypertension in the Jackson Heart Study: a cohort study.BMJ Open. 2022;12(3):e054812. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2021-054812American Medical Association.What doctors with patients knew about loneliness and health.U.S. Surgeon General.Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation, 2023.Harvard Graduate School of Education.Loneliness in America.Kreiner H, Levi-Belz Y.Self-disclosure here and now: combining retrospective perceived assessment with dynamic behavioral measures.Front Psychol. 2019;10:558. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00558

11 Sources

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.American Psychological Association.Stress in America 2022.Uzuki T, Konta T, Saito R, et al.Relationship between social support status and mortality in a community-based population: a prospective observational study (Yamagata study).BMC Public Health. 2020;20(1):1630. doi:10.1186/s12889-020-09752-9Vila J.Social support and longevity: Meta-analysis-based evidence and psychobiological mechanisms.Front Psychol. 2021;12:717164. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.717164Evans R, Katz CC, Fulginiti A, Taussig H.Sources and types of social supports and their association with mental health symptoms and life satisfaction among young adults with a history of out-of-home care.Children (Basel). 2022;9(4):520. doi:10.3390/children9040520Crookes DM, Shelton RC, Tehranifar P, et al.Social networks and social support for healthy eating among Latina breast cancer survivors: Implications for social and behavioral interventions.J Cancer Surviv. 2016;10(2):291–301. doi:10.1007/s11764-015-0475-6Button P, Fallon L, Fowler K.The impact of perceived social support and coping on distress in a sample of Atlantic Canadian health professional students during COVID-19 compared to pre-COVID peers.BMC Psychol. 2023;11(1):175. doi:10.1186/s40359-023-01218-yHarding BN, Hawley CN, Kalinowski J, et al.Relationship between social support and incident hypertension in the Jackson Heart Study: a cohort study.BMJ Open. 2022;12(3):e054812. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2021-054812American Medical Association.What doctors with patients knew about loneliness and health.U.S. Surgeon General.Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation, 2023.Harvard Graduate School of Education.Loneliness in America.Kreiner H, Levi-Belz Y.Self-disclosure here and now: combining retrospective perceived assessment with dynamic behavioral measures.Front Psychol. 2019;10:558. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00558

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

American Psychological Association.Stress in America 2022.Uzuki T, Konta T, Saito R, et al.Relationship between social support status and mortality in a community-based population: a prospective observational study (Yamagata study).BMC Public Health. 2020;20(1):1630. doi:10.1186/s12889-020-09752-9Vila J.Social support and longevity: Meta-analysis-based evidence and psychobiological mechanisms.Front Psychol. 2021;12:717164. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.717164Evans R, Katz CC, Fulginiti A, Taussig H.Sources and types of social supports and their association with mental health symptoms and life satisfaction among young adults with a history of out-of-home care.Children (Basel). 2022;9(4):520. doi:10.3390/children9040520Crookes DM, Shelton RC, Tehranifar P, et al.Social networks and social support for healthy eating among Latina breast cancer survivors: Implications for social and behavioral interventions.J Cancer Surviv. 2016;10(2):291–301. doi:10.1007/s11764-015-0475-6Button P, Fallon L, Fowler K.The impact of perceived social support and coping on distress in a sample of Atlantic Canadian health professional students during COVID-19 compared to pre-COVID peers.BMC Psychol. 2023;11(1):175. doi:10.1186/s40359-023-01218-yHarding BN, Hawley CN, Kalinowski J, et al.Relationship between social support and incident hypertension in the Jackson Heart Study: a cohort study.BMJ Open. 2022;12(3):e054812. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2021-054812American Medical Association.What doctors with patients knew about loneliness and health.U.S. Surgeon General.Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation, 2023.Harvard Graduate School of Education.Loneliness in America.Kreiner H, Levi-Belz Y.Self-disclosure here and now: combining retrospective perceived assessment with dynamic behavioral measures.Front Psychol. 2019;10:558. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00558

American Psychological Association.Stress in America 2022.

Uzuki T, Konta T, Saito R, et al.Relationship between social support status and mortality in a community-based population: a prospective observational study (Yamagata study).BMC Public Health. 2020;20(1):1630. doi:10.1186/s12889-020-09752-9

Vila J.Social support and longevity: Meta-analysis-based evidence and psychobiological mechanisms.Front Psychol. 2021;12:717164. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.717164

Evans R, Katz CC, Fulginiti A, Taussig H.Sources and types of social supports and their association with mental health symptoms and life satisfaction among young adults with a history of out-of-home care.Children (Basel). 2022;9(4):520. doi:10.3390/children9040520

Crookes DM, Shelton RC, Tehranifar P, et al.Social networks and social support for healthy eating among Latina breast cancer survivors: Implications for social and behavioral interventions.J Cancer Surviv. 2016;10(2):291–301. doi:10.1007/s11764-015-0475-6

Button P, Fallon L, Fowler K.The impact of perceived social support and coping on distress in a sample of Atlantic Canadian health professional students during COVID-19 compared to pre-COVID peers.BMC Psychol. 2023;11(1):175. doi:10.1186/s40359-023-01218-y

Harding BN, Hawley CN, Kalinowski J, et al.Relationship between social support and incident hypertension in the Jackson Heart Study: a cohort study.BMJ Open. 2022;12(3):e054812. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2021-054812

American Medical Association.What doctors with patients knew about loneliness and health.

U.S. Surgeon General.Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation, 2023.

Harvard Graduate School of Education.Loneliness in America.

Kreiner H, Levi-Belz Y.Self-disclosure here and now: combining retrospective perceived assessment with dynamic behavioral measures.Front Psychol. 2019;10:558. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00558

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