Recipient Reactions to Social Support: Contributions of Enacted Support, Conflicted Support and Network Orientation

Abstract

There is a need for a greater understanding of factors that influence individuals' satisfaction with social support. Theory and research on recipient reactions to aid guided the selection of variables for this study and its hypotheses. Results for seventy-eight mental health outpatients indicated that network orientation, conflicted support and enacted support had significant unique effects on support satisfaction. When psychological distress was the criterion, network orientation was a significant predictor, but its effect was not mediated by support satisfaction. The discussion focused on how network orientation, conflicted support and enacted support add to our understanding of recipient reactions to support.