Role of Social Support in the Experience of Stress at Work

It has been hypothesized that the positive relation between stress and strain responses is stronger for individuals who have low levels of social support than for those who have high levels of support. This hypothesis that social support buffers (moderates) the negative effects of stress has been tested extensively in a variety of settings with highly conflicting results. Some theorists have recently proposed that the moderating effect of social support is itself buffered by other variables such as sex or social class. The present study was designed to examine the role of social support in the experience of work stress with a sample large enough to provide statistically powerful tests of models of social support that specify two-way and three-way interactions. No support for higher order interactive models was found. In addition, no evidence emerged demonstrating any buffering effect for social support. Arguments are advanced for a parsimonious model in which social support has a modest direct effect of lowering experienced strain.