The Dynamic Properties of Social Support: Decay, Growth, and Staticity, and Their Effects on Adolescent Depression

Although social support is a static concept, its basic dynamic properties — decay, growth, and staticity — involve different underlying social processes, and therefore have differential effects on mental health. Using a sample of 11,835 adolescents from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, I conduct a series of regression analyses of depression on these properties of support. As hypothesized, the positive effect of support decay on depression is stronger than the negative effect of support growth. Results imply that, for those in an adolescent's social environment, it is important to take a proactive rather than a reactive approach to managing adolescent depression. Future research should adopt a framework that treats the distribution of social resources as dynamic in nature, and that is sensitive to contrasting processes this give rise to opposite mental health outcomes.