Introduction

If we knew that our social relationships had the power to shield us from adversity and to prevent us from succumbing to stress-induced anguish and disability, then we would do everything possible to ensure that people are equipped with these protective social resources. However, since some of these people will not have the skills, motivation, or coping propensities to engage in support-relevant interactions with others, we will need to invest effort in determining how to select the best candidates for such interventions and how to design them in a way that has broad appeal. For those practitioners who wish to capitalize on social support's protective potential, all of these activities constitute a challenging agenda for planning and implementing such interventions in the health field.

This chapter begins by setting out the rationale for the development of support interventions, and then distinguishes between interventions in the natural network and interventions that introduce one or more new social ties. In the health field, the latter strategies predominate. Hence, the chapter consists of two main sections, the first concentrating on the design and effectiveness of support groups and the second focusing on ways of marshalling individual supportive allies. Several critical issues and uncertainties about the optimal design of these initiatives are considered, including the importance of properly matching them to certain characteristics of the intended beneficiaries. Questions that need to be addressed in the next generation of support studies are sprinkled throughout the chapter.