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Social support versus companionship: Effects on life stress, loneliness, and evaluations by others.
Abstract
In recent years, much interest has focused on delineating and contrasting specific functions of social relationships that contribute to psychological well-being. Five studies contrasted the roles of companionship and social support in buffering the effects of life stress, in influencing feelings of loneliness and social satisfaction, and in affecting others' judgments. Study 1 analyzed data from a community survey and found that companionship had a main effect on psychological well-being and a buffering effect on minor life stress, whereas social support had only a buffering effect on major life stress. Studies 2, 3, and 4 analyzed data from two college student samples and a different community survey to evaluate how companionship and social support contributed to relationship satisfaction and feelings of loneliness. The results of these studies indicated that companionship was the strongest predictor of these dimensions of social satisfaction. Study 5 used an experimental design to test the hypothesis that a deficit of companionship elicits more negative reactions from others than does a deficit of social support. This hypothesis received partial support. Considered together, the results of these studies suggest that companionship plays a more important and more varied role in sustaining emotional well-being than previous studies have acknowledged.
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Companionship plays a more significant and multifaceted role in sustaining emotional health than previously recognised, exerting a direct positive effect on well-being.
“Rook (1987) found that companionship plays a more significant and multifaceted role in sustaining emotional health than previously recognised, exerting a direct positive effect on well-being.”
From Artificial intelligence and unconditional love: the rise of generative AI as an alternative form of mental health support (2026) · cites this paper as Rook (1987)
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Metadata
- Authors
- Rook, K. S.
- Venue
- Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
- Published
- 1987
- Volume
- 52
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 1132-1147
- ISSN
- 1939-1315
- 0022-3514
- Cited by
- 323
- References
- 0
- Language
- en
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