ABSTRACT

Social support is a prominent factor in mental health etiology. According to the social support deterioration model, exposure to chronic stressors may over time erode people's social support, thereby contributing to increases in mental health issues. Although there is mounting evidence indicating the beneficial consequences of online social support, the extent to which social support deterioration takes place in an online context is to date not investigated. In this study, we tested if exposure to financial stress is associated with depressive symptoms and whether this association can be explained by decreases in both perceived online and offline social support respectively. Using data from a 2016 survey of a representative sample of inhabitants of Ghent (Belgium) (n = 1150, 51.5% female, M_age = 45.4, SD_age = 15.9), we were able to confirm that a reduction in perceived online social support mediates the positive association of financial stress exposure with depressive symptoms, albeit only weakly and indirectly via its association with perceived offline social support. Our findings suggest that the association of online social support with respect to financial stress and mental health is comparable to its offline counterpart, yet its part should not be overstated. These findings allow us to discuss the offline role of online social support.

摘要

社会支持是心理健康病因学中的一个突出因素。根据社会支持恶化模型，长期暴露于慢性压力源可能会侵蚀人们的社会支持，从而导致心理健康问题的增加。尽管有越来越多的证据表明在线社会支持的有益后果，但迄今为止尚未调查在线环境中社会支持恶化的程度。在这项研究中，我们测试了财务压力是否与抑郁症状相关，以及这种关联是否可以分别通过感知的在线和离线社会支持的减少来解释。使用 2016 年对根特（比利时）居民代表性样本的调查数据（n  = 1150，51.5% 女性，M_年龄 = 45.4，SD_年龄 = 15.9），我们能够确认感知到的在线社会支持的减少介导了财务压力暴露与抑郁症状的正相关，尽管它与感知的线下社会支持的关联只是微弱和间接的。我们的研究结果表明，在线社会支持与财务压力和心理健康之间的关联与其离线对应物相当，但不应夸大其词。这些发现使我们能够讨论在线社会支持的离线作用。