Social Support, Family Separation, and Well-being among Military Wives

Abstract

The effects on general well-being of perceived social support, stress, and the Stress X Support interaction were examined in a sample of military wives. Support was defined as the perception of being able to count on another military wife for help with a personal or family problem. Stress was defined as the amount of time spent in the field by the soldiers in the husbands' units. Stress was found to have an adverse effect on well-being only among those who did not perceive themselves as having social support, which is consistent with the buffering hypothesis of social support. Major predictors of social support included husband's rank, type of unit, and stress. This suggests that to some extent stress itself stimulates adaptation by motivating individuals to enlist support from others. This may be a partial explanation of the buffering effect found in this study.