Social support concepts and measures Benjamin H. Gottlieb ⁎ , Anne E. Bergen Psychology Department, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada Received 30 April 2009; received in revised form 7 July 2009; accepted 2 October 2009 Abstract Distinctions among concepts and approaches to assessing social support are made, and published generic and specialized measures of social support are reviewed. Depending on study aims, investigators may be interested in assessing perceived or received support from the perspective of the provider, the recipient, or both. Whereas some measures inquire about the availability or mobilization of several kinds of supportive resources, others seek supplemental information about the membership and structural properties of the social network as well. Observational and self-reported measures of support are presented, along with brief and extensive measures. A final set of three support measures is highlighted, including their psycho- metric properties. © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Measures; Social network; Social support, social resources Social support, social networks, and social integration are three terms that designate three different perspectives on the resources that may lie in the personal communities we inhabit. Regrettably, the three terms are often confused because they have some degree of overlap and mutual influence. Yet a fourth term is commonly employed by practitioners in the health and human services field, namely, support system, a term that blends the function and the structural context of social ties, romantically suggesting that people's social ties are unconditionally supportive. Since social support is in fact highly contingent on numerous personal, environmental, and cultural factors, it cannot be assumed to permanently reside in social networks. Nor can it be assumed to be available and adequate in quantity and quality at times when people appraise the resources at their disposal. For these reasons, among others, the measurement of social support requires clarity about the aspects of the social surround that are most relevant to the aims and context of research, and precision in their measurement. After distinguishing among the three preceding perspec- tives on the resources that arise from people's social ties, we concentrate on the many support-related concepts that can be measured empirically and which are listed and defined in Table 1. We then present a number of assessment tools that variously measure these concepts, spotlighting three mea- sures of social support that are likely to be of particular interest to investigators. This is followed by a discussion of customized support measures for distinct populations and cultures, followed by a consideration of different methods of documenting social support, such as diary and observational studies. Our primary goal is to inform decisions about what to measure and how it can best be measured in basic and intervention studies aimed to sensitively capture the proximal social network's support-related functions. The social sphere: social integration, network, and support In the natural environment, social support arises from the conduct of personal relationships. Indeed, the relationship itself gives supportive meaning to behavior and, conversely, supportive behaviors can bring relationship meaning to interactions. Witness the deterioration of close relationships Journal of Psychosomatic Research 69 (2010) 511 – 520 ⁎ Corresponding author. Psychology Department, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada N1G 2W1. Tel.: +1 519 824 4120x54577; fax: +1 519 837 8629. E-mail address: bgottlie@uoguelph.ca (B.H. Gottlieb). 0022-3999/09/$ – see front matter © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jpsychores.2009.10.001