The TIMES Model: Investigating the Importance of Social Support Timing

Stress is a regular part of everyday life. It may arise from common experiences such as problems at work or arguments with friends, or it may have its origin in large-scale traumatic experiences such as a pandemic, political polarization, or economic depression. Such experiences permeate lives and are known to harm well-being. Research shows that the negative effects of such stressors can be reduced by supportive social relationships. Prior studies examining social support during times of stress have focused almost exclusively on the period leading up to or during a stressor. Yet, there is a growing recognition that recovery processes following a stressor may have important long-term implications for well-being, and in ways that differ from social support before or during a stressful event. This project focuses on how the psychological mechanisms of social support differ before versus after a stressful event. It is expected that social support received after a stressful event provides a particular benefit for recovery, and that it operates through distinct psychological mechanisms and has different outcomes compared to support enacted before a stressor. Making a distinction between pre-stressor and post-stressor social support is important because many stressful events are not anticipated, which means that pre-stressor support is not always available. This project will inform potential interventions by advancing understanding and improving how close others can help each other cope with stressors in the aftermath of stressful events.

This project focuses on the role of social support during a post-stressor period in facilitating emotional and physiological stressor recovery. The research considers the questions of whether post-stressor support involves distinct mediating processes and distinct outcomes when compared to support provided during the pre-stressor period. It is generally hypothesized that post-stressor support benefits physiological and emotional recovery. More specifically, it is expected that effective pre-stressor support reduces recipients' distress and sympathetic arousal because of higher self-efficacy. In contrast, effective post-stressor support is expected to enhance recipients' calmness, composure and parasympathetic control because of lower rumination, greater positive reframing, and rebuilding of the self. These hypotheses are tested in a daily diary study with a long-term follow-up and in an experiment introducing a social stressor. The project explores longer-term implications of post-stressor support and considers potential boundary conditions. Laying the foundation for potential future interventions is a priority. Students involved in the research learn about psychophysiological methods and participate in the conduct of studies on people in close relationships.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.