Exploring the structural contexts of the support process: social networks, social statuses, social support, and psychological distress

Despite the long-standing interest of sociologists in the impact of social structure on the psychological well-being of individuals, the structural contexts of the support process remain understudied. To begin to fill this gap, some support researchers have used social statuses to tap location in the social structure. Others have analyzed the interpersonal environments in which individuals are embedded by using quasi-network data that describe categories of alters or, less commonly, network data linked to specific alters. We use network data to test models that examine: (1) direct effects of network structure on perceived adequacy of social support; and (2) their direct and indirect effects (through social support) on psychological distress — net of social status effects. Our results suggest that the social network context is more important in the support process than researchers using quasi-network data have concluded.