Abstract
While there has been much empirical investigation into how social support networks improve mental health in post-disaster communities, network density—the extent members within a network are acquainted—remains under-researched. This study examines correlations between support network density and support reciprocity satisfaction in an elderly sample (N = 221), and the influence on post-disaster depression and trauma symptomology in a fishing community south of the Fukushima nuclear plant within 1 year of the March 11, 2011 Japan earthquake. The Brief Inventory of Social Support Exchange Network (BISSEN) taps support network density, support source by relational category, tangible and emotional type, and providing or receiving direction of social support. Density measurement convergent validity was established from questionnaire responses. After confirming network density construct and criteria validity, and extracting components reciprocal support relationship satisfaction, correlation between these two variables was moderate at r = 0.34. However, reciprocity satisfaction moderately explained mental health variance, but results were not significant for density nor interaction between predictors. These results question the assumption that support network density and support reciprocity can be validly incorporated into a construct of “social capital” necessarily promoting mental health.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Government of Japan Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare (Grant No. 201105016A).
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Appendices
Appendix 1: Questionnaire Based on Brief Inventory of Social Support Exchange Network (BISSEN) (Aiba et al. 2013, 2017) Tapping Support Source, Emotional or Tangible Support Type, and Providing or Receiving Support Direction
Please circle any specific individuals who come to mind. (Circle as many as necessary)
Support subtype | Question | Support source category | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Cohabitating family/relative | Other relative | Friend | Neighbor | Colleague | None | ||
Receiving Emotional Support-1 | 1 Currently is there someone who helps you feel better and listens to your complaints when you are feeling down? | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
Receiving Emotional Support-2 | 2 Currently is there someone who you can discuss things with or who can offer you opinions when you have to make a difficult decision? | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
Receiving Tangible Support-1 | 3 Currently is there someone who will take up something on your behalf? | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
Receiving Tangible Support-2 | 4 Currently is there someone who would care for you or a family member when physically ill? | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
Providing Emotional Support-1 | 5 Currently is there someone whom you help feel better and listen to when they are feeling down? | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
Providing Emotional Support-2 | 6 Currently is there someone who can discuss things with you or to whom you offer opinions when they have to make a difficult decision? | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
Providing Tangible Support-1 | 7 Currently is there someone for whom you will take up something on their behalf? | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
Providing Tangible Support-2 | 8 Currently is there someone or their family you would care for if they were physically ill? | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
Appendix 2: Support Source Category Confirmatory Factor Analysis
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Providing emotional support to friends | 0.884 | − 0.025 | 0.017 | 0.035 | 0.093 | 0.125 |
Providing tangible support to friends | 0.666 | − 0.017 | − 0.05 | 0.027 | − 0.058 | − 0.131 |
Receiving emotional support from friends | 0.654 | − 0.003 | 0.037 | − 0.058 | 0.047 | 0.007 |
Receiving tangible support from friends | 0.573 | 0.046 | − 0.021 | 0.001 | − 0.02 | − 0.093 |
Providing emotional support to colleagues | 0.048 | 0.915 | − 0.009 | − 0.067 | 0.032 | 0.022 |
Receiving emotional support from colleagues | − 0.036 | 0.702 | 0.036 | − 0.048 | 0.009 | 0.026 |
Providing tangible support to colleagues | 0.013 | 0.677 | − 0.046 | 0.039 | 0.039 | − 0.027 |
Receiving tangible support from colleagues | − 0.017 | 0.574 | 0.029 | 0.083 | − 0.05 | − 0.019 |
Providing tangible support to family | 0.002 | − 0.01 | 0.813 | − 0.004 | 0.002 | 0.004 |
Receiving tangible support from family | 0.101 | − 0.033 | 0.795 | − 0.013 | − 0.08 | 0.025 |
Providing emotional support to family | − 0.101 | 0.011 | 0.741 | 0.029 | 0.025 | − 0.028 |
Receiving emotional support from family | 0.009 | 0.047 | 0.705 | − 0.01 | 0.022 | − 0.009 |
Providing emotional support to others | − 0.061 | − 0.086 | 0.042 | 0.834 | − 0.014 | − 0.022 |
Providing tangible support to others | − 0.068 | − 0.056 | 0.026 | 0.831 | 0.096 | 0.034 |
Receiving emotional support from others | 0.077 | 0.069 | − 0.051 | 0.518 | − 0.078 | 0.063 |
Receiving tangible support from others | 0.032 | 0.092 | − 0.015 | 0.448 | 0.011 | − 0.078 |
Providing emotional support to relatives | 0.047 | − 0.018 | 0.091 | 0.019 | 0.826 | − 0.005 |
Providing tangible support to relatives | 0.057 | − 0.031 | − 0.023 | 0.029 | 0.788 | − 0.026 |
Receiving tangible support from relatives | 0.032 | 0.046 | − 0.082 | − 0.008 | 0.698 | − 0.035 |
Receiving emotional support from relatives | − 0.051 | 0.02 | − 0.011 | − 0.021 | 0.652 | 0.017 |
Providing emotional support to neighbors | − 0.013 | − 0.002 | 0.014 | − 0.05 | 0.014 | − 0.842 |
Providing tangible support to neighbors | − 0.051 | − 0.019 | − 0.043 | − 0.007 | 0.039 | − 0.775 |
Receiving tangible support from neighbors | 0.045 | 0.029 | − 0.002 | 0.099 | 0.01 | − 0.617 |
Receiving emotional support from neighbors | 0.067 | − 0.005 | 0.036 | − 0.036 | − 0.016 | − 0.582 |
Extraction method: Maximum Likelihood | ||||||
Rotation method: Oblimin with Kaiser Normalization | ||||||
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Lebowitz, A.J., Sato, S. & Aiba, M. Correlating Post-disaster Support Network Density with Reciprocal Support Relation Satisfaction: An Elderly Cohort Within One Year of the 2011 Japan Disasters. Popul Res Policy Rev 37, 923–939 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11113-018-9498-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11113-018-9498-9