Stress-buffering effects of perceived social supports from family members and friends: A comparison of college students and middle-aged adults

This study investigated perceived social support, emotional as well as instrumental, from family members and friends, and examined their stress-buffering effects on depression in college students and middle-aged adults in Japan. For both samples, family members were relatively more important sources of instrumental support, whereas friends were primarily perceived as emotional support providers. No gender differences were found for the middle-aged adults, but as in previous studies, women in the college sample perceived more support for them than men. A series of hierarchical regression analyses with support by stress interaction terms revealed distinctive patterns of support effects on depression for men and women of each sample. Characteristics of perceived social support in each sample were described, and overall results suggested that it is essential in social support research to take the meanings of supportive relationship into consideration, in the context of social and developmental factors of the samples under study.