Social Support and Help-Seeking Worldwide
Erica Szkody, Anjolee Spence, Asil Özdoğru, Bhawna Tushir, Fennie Chang, Handan Akkaş, Ian Sotomayor, Iuliia Pavlova, Ivana Petrovic, Jill Norvilitis, Judith Pena-Shaff, Julia Maney, Kaitlyn Arrow, Laura Rodriguez, Mary Moussa-Rogers, Michael McTighe, Kalu T. U. Ogba, Stephanie Ka Wai Au Yeung, Tara Stoppa, Yuanyuan Yang, Courtney L. Gosnell, Gihane Jérémie-Brink, Joshua J. Van Nostrand, Patrícia Arriaga, Amy Martin, Ana Maksimovic, Andreea Ursu, Arzu Karakulak, Brianna Fitapelli, Brien K. Ashdown, Celia K. Naivar Sen, Chris Chartier, Christina Shane-Simpson, Christopher M. Redker, Cliff McKinney, Danisha Baro, Denisse Manrique-Millones, Eduardo Silva Reis, Eirini Adamopoulou, Eliz Volkan, Ergyul Tair, Ethan Trujillo, Halil Emre Kocalar, Heidi Blocker, Hinza Malik, İrem Metin Orta, Jay Claus Santos, Jon Grahe, Kelly Cuccolo, Liam Wignall, Malorie McLain, Marianna Kosic, Moet Aita, Monique Nash, Ogba Oluchi Miracle, Olivia Christiano, Radosveta Dimitrova, Rahul Varma, Rebecca Mann, Sandesh Dhakal, Sara Estrada-Villalta, Sara Haden, Sarah Hamilton, Selin Metin Camgöz, Shams Aljuberi, Stephanie Chin, Steven Kohn, Sunil K. Verma, Tifani Fletcher, Tushar Singh, Abigail Sanders, Adryana Collado, Akua Adusei, Alaa Itani, Amanda Kaser, Amber Wolfe, Amy Stout, Anahita Akhavan, Angelique Kirton, Ayşe Rezan Çeçen-Eroğul, Bilge Bilir, Camille Dupiton, Caroline Lovett, Chloe Orsini, Christney Kpodo, Christopher Aceto, Clare Redden, Danielle NyKanen, Deniz Yildiz, Emily Lutringer, Ender Sevinç, Erica Baranski, Fahd Khan, Fanli Jia, Gabriel Cramariuc, Guolin Zhang, Hakile Resulbegoviq, Haneen Maree, Harleen Kaur, Jessie Nelson, Jimena Santa Cruz Espinoza, JoAnna Hubbard, John Edlund, John Protzko, Jolie Hoang, Jordan Stork, Jordan Vasu, Jose Verdis Salazar, Karyssa Myhers, Kaylynn Hayward, Kevin Lu, Leisha Beardmore, Liliia Levkiv, Linda Katheryn Hernandez Godoy, Liseth Paulett, María Fernanda Bonilla Gonzalez, Maria Kalantzis, Mariana Rodrigues, Marinés Mejía Álvarez, Marissa Ott, Martha Zlokovich, Mary Kate Brosnan, Mateus Mazzaferro, Melis Yetkin, Mikayla Johnson, Milica Vukelic, Mitchell Clark, Mohammad AlMalik, Neda Fedavi, Noah Means-Simonsen, Onassis Cabrera, Panta Kovacevic, Qingyi Zhang, Rachel Rushing, Rafail Varakis, Randall Richardson, Sara Koch, Savannah Lewis, Scott Barrera, Sifan Zheng, Siyu Liu, Sophia Papka, Sreeja Das, Srijana Ghimire, Tanya Verma, Taylor Hillman, Ugur C. Ozkusen, Xinyi (Spencer) Zhang, Yiwen Gu, Bryce Redd, and Cory J. Cascalheira
Social support has long been associated with positive physical, behavioral, and mental health outcomes. However, contextual factors such as subjective social status and an individual’s cultural values, heavily influence social support behaviors (e.g., perceive available social support, accept support, seek support, provide support). We sought to determine the current state of social support behaviors and the association between these behaviors, cultural values, and subjective social support across regions of the world. Data from 6,366 participants were collected by collaborators from over 50 worldwide sites (67.4% or n = 4292, assigned female at birth; average age of 30.76). Our results show that individuals cultural values and subjective social status varied across world regions and were differentially associated with social support behaviors. For example, individuals with higher subjective social status were more likely to indicate more perceived and received social support and help-seeking behaviors; they also indicated more provision of social support to others than individuals with lower subjective social status. Further, horizontal, and vertical collectivism were related to higher help-seeking behavior, perceived support, received support, and provision of support, whereas horizontal individualism was associated with less perceived support and less help-seeking and vertical individualism was associated with less perceived and received support, but more help-seeking behavior. However, these effects were not consistently moderated by region. These findings highlight and advance the understanding of how cross-cultural complexities and contextual distinctions influence an individual's perception, processing, and practice of social support embedded in the changing social landscape.
Erica Szkody, Anjolee Spence, Asil Özdoğru, Bhawna Tushir, Fennie Chang, Handan Akkaş, Ian Sotomayor, Iuliia Pavlova, Ivana Petrovic, Jill Norvilitis, Judith Pena-Shaff, Julia Maney, Kaitlyn Arrow, Laura Rodriguez, Mary Moussa-Rogers, Michael McTighe, Kalu T. U. Ogba, Stephanie Ka Wai Au Yeung, Tara Stoppa, Yuanyuan Yang, Courtney L. Gosnell, Gihane Jérémie-Brink, Joshua J. Van Nostrand, Patrícia Arriaga, Amy Martin, Ana Maksimovic, Andreea Ursu, Arzu Karakulak, Brianna Fitapelli, Brien K. Ashdown, Celia K. Naivar Sen, Chris Chartier, Christina Shane-Simpson, Christopher M. Redker, Cliff McKinney, Danisha Baro, Denisse Manrique-Millones, Eduardo Silva Reis, Eirini Adamopoulou, Eliz Volkan, Ergyul Tair, Ethan Trujillo, Halil Emre Kocalar, Heidi Blocker, Hinza Malik, İrem Metin Orta, Jay Claus Santos, Jon Grahe, Kelly Cuccolo, Liam Wignall, Malorie McLain, Marianna Kosic, Moet Aita, Monique Nash, Ogba Oluchi Miracle, Olivia Christiano, Radosveta Dimitrova, Rahul Varma, Rebecca Mann, Sandesh Dhakal, Sara Estrada-Villalta, Sara Haden, Sarah Hamilton, Selin Metin Camgöz, Shams Aljuberi, Stephanie Chin, Steven Kohn, Sunil K. Verma, Tifani Fletcher, Tushar Singh, Abigail Sanders, Adryana Collado, Akua Adusei, Alaa Itani, Amanda Kaser, Amber Wolfe, Amy Stout, Anahita Akhavan, Angelique Kirton, Ayşe Rezan Çeçen-Eroğul, Bilge Bilir, Camille Dupiton, Caroline Lovett, Chloe Orsini, Christney Kpodo, Christopher Aceto, Clare Redden, Danielle NyKanen, Deniz Yildiz, Emily Lutringer, Ender Sevinç, Erica Baranski, Fahd Khan, Fanli Jia, Gabriel Cramariuc, Guolin Zhang, Hakile Resulbegoviq, Haneen Maree, Harleen Kaur, Jessie Nelson, Jimena Santa Cruz Espinoza, JoAnna Hubbard, John Edlund, John Protzko, Jolie Hoang, Jordan Stork, Jordan Vasu, Jose Verdis Salazar, Karyssa Myhers, Kaylynn Hayward, Kevin Lu, Leisha Beardmore, Liliia Levkiv, Linda Katheryn Hernandez Godoy, Liseth Paulett, María Fernanda Bonilla Gonzalez, Maria Kalantzis, Mariana Rodrigues, Marinés Mejía Álvarez, Marissa Ott, Martha Zlokovich, Mary Kate Brosnan, Mateus Mazzaferro, Melis Yetkin, Mikayla Johnson, Milica Vukelic, Mitchell Clark, Mohammad AlMalik, Neda Fedavi, Noah Means-Simonsen, Onassis Cabrera, Panta Kovacevic, Qingyi Zhang, Rachel Rushing, Rafail Varakis, Randall Richardson, Sara Koch, Savannah Lewis, Scott Barrera, Sifan Zheng, Siyu Liu, Sophia Papka, Sreeja Das, Srijana Ghimire, Tanya Verma, Taylor Hillman, Ugur C. Ozkusen, Xinyi (Spencer) Zhang, Yiwen Gu, Bryce Redd, and Cory J. Cascalheira
Social support has long been associated with positive physical, behavioral, and mental health outcomes. However, contextual factors such as subjective social status and an individual’s cultural values, heavily influence social support behaviors (e.g., perceive available social support, accept support, seek support, provide support). We sought to determine the current state of social support behaviors and the association between these behaviors, cultural values, and subjective social support across regions of the world. Data from 6,366 participants were collected by collaborators from over 50 worldwide sites (67.4% or n = 4292, assigned female at birth; average age of 30.76). Our results show that individuals cultural values and subjective social status varied across world regions and were differentially associated with social support behaviors. For example, individuals with higher subjective social status were more likely to indicate more perceived and received social support and help-seeking behaviors; they also indicated more provision of social support to others than individuals with lower subjective social status. Further, horizontal, and vertical collectivism were related to higher help-seeking behavior, perceived support, received support, and provision of support, whereas horizontal individualism was associated with less perceived support and less help-seeking and vertical individualism was associated with less perceived and received support, but more help-seeking behavior. However, these effects were not consistently moderated by region. These findings highlight and advance the understanding of how cross-cultural complexities and contextual distinctions influence an individual's perception, processing, and practice of social support embedded in the changing social landscape.Citation: Szkody, E., Spence, A., Özdoğru, A., Tushir, B., Chang, F., Akkaş, H., Sotomayor, I., Pavlova, I., Petrovic, I., Norvilitis, J., Pena-Shaff, J., Maney, J., Arrow, K., Rodriguez, L., Moussa-Rogers, M., McTighe, M., Ogba, K. T. U., Au Yeung, S. K. W., Stoppa, T., . . . Cascalheira, C. J. (2024). Social support and help-seeking worldwide. Current Psychology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-024-05764-5
