Family Support and Strain

Factor: Being Valued in Community

Age: Adult

Duration: Less than 3 minutes

Reading Level: Less than 6th grade

What

Sociologist Tonya Schuster and her team (1990) created the 8-item Family Support and Strain measure to assess how much people think their family members help or hinder them.

Who

Researchers have used this scale in nationally representative surveys that include adults in poverty.

How

INSTRUCTIONS

For the family support section of the measure, respondents use a 4-point scale (1 = a lot; 4 = not at all) to answer questions such as “Not including your spouse or partner, how much do members of your family really care about you?”

For the family strain section, respondents use a different 4-point scale (1 = often; 4 = never) to answer questions such as “How often do members of your family make too many demands on you?”

Researchers then calculate two scores for each respondent: their average rating of the four support items and their average rating of the four strain items.

RESPONSE FORMAT

This survey uses multiple answer formats.

The Family Support subscale items are Q1, Q2, Q3, and Q4. The answer format for these questions is: 1 = a lot; 2 = some; 3 = a little; 4 = not at all.

The Family Strain subscale items are Q5, Q6, Q7, and Q8. The answer format for these questions is: 1 = often; 2 = sometimes; 3 = rarely; 4 = never.

Why It Matters

Family support and strain affect physical and mental health, which in turn shape — and are shaped by — social mobility (Halleröd & Gustafsson, 2011). For example, compared to respondents who give lower ratings on the scale’s family support items, respondents who give higher ratings have greater life satisfaction, better health (Walen & Lachman, 2000), and fewer drinking problems (Grzywacz & Marks, 1999). And compared to respondents with higher scores on the scale’s family strain items, respondents with lower scores have fewer mood and anxiety disorders (Mouzon, 2013). Other studies (e.g., Cohen & Willis, 1985; Yang, Schorpp, & Harris, 2014) similarly show that people with better family relationships fare better than those without strong ties.

HEADS UP

Although other research shows that family relationships can drive or undermine social mobility (Repetti, Taylor, & Seeman, T. E., 2002), researchers have not yet used the Family Support and Strain Measure to test this idea.

References

Cohen, S., & Wills, T. A. (1985). Stress, social support, and the buffering hypothesis. Psychological bulletin, 98(2), 310.

Grzywacz, J. G., & Marks, N. F. (1999). Family solidarity and health behaviors: Evidence from the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States. Journal of Family Issues, 20(2), 243-268.

Halleröd, B., & Gustafsson, J. E. (2011). A longitudinal analysis of the relationship between changes in socio-economic status and changes in health. Social Science & Medicine, 72(1), 116-123.

Lachman, M. E., & Agrigoroaei, S. (2010). Promoting functional health in midlife and old age: Long-term protective effects of control beliefs, social support, and physical exercise. PloS One, 5(10), e13297.

Mouzon, D. M. (2013). Can family relationships explain the race paradox in mental health? Journal of Marriage and Family, 75(2), 470-485.

Repetti, R. L., Taylor, S. E., & Seeman, T. E. (2002). Risky families: Family social environments and the mental and physical health of offspring. Psychological Bulletin, 128(2), 330-366.

Schuster, T. L., Kessler, R. C., & Aseltine, R. H. (1990). Supportive interactions, negative interactions, and depressed mood. American Journal of Community Psychology, 18(3), 423-438.

Walen, H. R., & Lachman, M. E. (2000). Social support and strain from partner, family, and friends: Costs and benefits for men and women in adulthood. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 17(1), 5-30.

Yang, Y. C., Schorpp, K., & Harris, K. M. (2014). Social support, social strain and inflammation: Evidence from a national longitudinal study of US adults. Social Science & Medicine, 107, 124-135.