Introduction

In recent years, the Chinese government has paid more attention to helping people in need. One important group is women who both take care of their families and earn money. In 2023, a provincial Women’s Federation started a program to help women who became the main breadwinners due to divorce, losing a spouse, or their partner becoming unable to work. These women are called “breadwinner mothers.” They often confront financial and familial hardship. The program selected 37 counties (cities and districts) and three additional areas within the province as pilot sites. These services were not only meant to solve daily problems, but also to help women become stronger and more confident in the long run. As the program has begun to show promising results, it is both timely and necessary to assess the program’s impact on recipients’ coping strategies. Previous studies have paid limited attention to such structured interventions and have largely lacked quantitative assessments of their psychological effects. Moreover, disadvantaged breadwinner mothers remain an under-researched subgroup within the literature. There is no clear consensus on how various facets of social support—such as perception, utilization, and evaluation—affect the development of positive coping strategies. This study seeks to address these gaps.

Based on this context, the present study conducted a questionnaire survey targeting breadwinner mothers who benefit from the program’s services. It aims to answer the following research questions:

  • RQ1 To what extent have the positive coping strategies of disadvantaged breadwinner mothers improved after receiving support services?

  • RQ2 How do recipients perceive, utilize, and evaluate the support services provided?

  • RQ3 Do different dimensions of social support have varying effects on the formation of positive coping strategies among disadvantaged breadwinner mothers?

  • RQ4 What factors may influence their positive coping strategies?

  • RQ5 What implications can be drawn from this program for improving the coping strategies of recipients in similar social support assistance programs?

Literature review and research hypothesis

Definition, dimensions, and research contexts of coping styles

Coping and coping styles do not have a universal accepted definition or measurement method. Some scholars see coping as a conscious effort to manage stress1. Others view it as a dynamic process. Here, people frequently evaluate and modify their ideas and actions in reaction to their surroundings. This is especially true when demands exceed their abilities or resources2. The goal is to reduce negative emotions and restore psychological balance3. Coping can also be seen as the cognitive and behavioral strategies people use to face challenges. This approach aims to lessen psychological harm. In this view, coping is both a response and a crucial sign of personal growth and social adaptation.

Many psychological studies show a key variable in the link between stress and health: coping styles. These styles refer to how people handle internal and external demands, as well as emotional distress4. They can involve thought patterns or behaviors5. Also known as coping strategies or mechanisms, they reveal tendencies in how we cope. Coping styles fall into two main categories: positive and negative. Positive coping focuses on seeking resources and solving problems6. In contrast, negative coping includes avoidance, denial, procrastination, or emotional withdrawal. While negative coping may give temporary relief, it often causes long-term psychological harm.

Positive coping leads to better emotional regulation and resilience, especially during prolonged stress. It encourages proactive approaches to challenges by seeking social support, reframing thoughts, or directly addressing problems. In traumatic situations, these strategies can help protect against negative thoughts, emotional issues, and conditions such as post-traumatic stress7. On the other hand, negative coping styles are linked to poorer mental health outcomes.

Current research on coping styles mainly looks at specific groups. These include students8,9 and patients with chronic illnesses10,11,12. However, there are few studies on professionals, such as healthcare workers13,14 and teachers15,16. Most of these studies focus on clinical medicine and educational psychology. This limits their use in wider contexts. Additionally, research on coping mechanisms in vulnerable groups is scarce. Most studies focus on parents who lost an only child, caregivers of children with autism17, and family caregivers of patients18. However, there is a big gap regarding disadvantaged breadwinner mothers who have to raise children and earn money at the same time. This study aims to deepen the understanding of positive coping styles within this overlooked group and provide empirical evidence to guide future interventions for vulnerable groups.

Social support and its role in shaping coping styles

Although social support has been widely studied, its definition and measurement methods remain inconsistent. Some scholars define it as the assistance individuals receive from their social networks19, while others categorize it by function into tangible resources (e.g., material or financial aid) and intangible resources (e.g., emotional support, guidance, or social intimacy).This study adopts a comprehensive definition of social support as the totality of conditions and resources that are available and accessible to individuals, encompassing actual support received, satisfaction with that support, and the extent of its utilization.Previous research often regards coping styles as mediating20 or moderating variables21 in the relationship between social support and emotional outcomes or subjective well-being;other studies regard social support and coping styles together as predictor variables17,22 mediator variables23 or moderator variables24 to explore their specific roles in physical and mental health pathways. However, the intrinsic relationship between social support and coping styles and the mechanisms by which social support influences coping styles remain insufficiently clarified.

While coping styles exhibit relative stability over time, they also tend to fluctuate in response to different stressors. As Lazarus and Folkman2 argue, coping is characterized by both situational specificity and individual variability. According to the social support buffering model, support influences individuals’ reappraisal of stressors, thereby mitigating their physical and psychological impact25,26.As an essential coping resource, social support shapes the selection of coping styles27,and facilitates adaptive adjustment response. High levels of support predict greater resilience, enhanced adaptability, and fewer emotional difficulties, with individuals perceiving more support tending to adopt more positive coping styles25; Conversely, lower levels of support increase individuals’ vulnerability in the face of adversity28.

Furthermore, interpersonal trust has emerged as a potential mediator in this dynamic. Trust fosters a sense of security in social relationships and encourages individuals to seek help and engage in problem-solving rather than resorting to avoidance. Several studies indicate that greater perceived social support correlates with higher generalized trust, which in turn predicts more constructive coping29,30. This trust-based mechanism aligns with social exchange theory, which posits that individuals are more likely to engage positively with others when they perceive relational equity and support.

Although these findings underscore the relevance of social support in shaping coping behavior, few studies have systematically examined how this relationship operates among marginalized populations such as disadvantaged breadwinner mothers. Moreover, the mechanisms through which support services influence trust and coping remain insufficiently explored in the literature.

Research gap and hypotheses

Despite extensive research on coping and social support,several important gaps remain. First, the majority of existing studies have focused on general populations or well-defined occupational groups, with insufficient attention given to low-income women who carry the dual responsibilities of care giving and financial provision. Second, although theoretical models like the buffering hypothesis and social exchange theory offer frameworks for understanding the impact of social support, their applicability to structured, government-led support programs has not been adequately examined. Third, most studies emphasize individual-level outcomes often overlooking community- or system-level interventions that may amplify or constrain coping behaviors.

This study addresses these gaps by investigating how structured social support services, delivered through a provincial assistance program, affect the coping styles of disadvantaged breadwinner mothers. Specifically, it tests the following hypotheses:

H1

Social support services provided through the program directly enhance the positive coping styles of disadvantaged breadwinner mothers.

H2

These services indirectly influence coping styles by increasing recipients’ general social trust (see predictive model in Fig. 1).

Fig. 1
figure 1

Research forecasting model.

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Method

This study used data collected in October 2023 as part of a program to assist disadvantaged breadwinner mothers in one of the Chinese provinces. The research has been reviewed and approved by the provincial women’s federation and the ethics review committee of the university where the author of this article is located. All methods complied with national regulations and institutional ethical guidelines for human behavioral research. The data collection strictly follows the Statistics Law of the People’s Republic of China and all data remained anonymized. Breadwinner mothers were asked about their characteristics, family background, living difficulties, assistance received, and evaluation of services provided. A targeted survey was conducted with the first group of program recipients with the support of the Provincial Women’s Federation, local women’s federations, and social work organizations. All respondents were informed of the survey purpose, expected benefits, potential risks, anonymous handling, and privacy measures before accepting the questionnaire survey, and signed an informed consent statement. According to the Provincial Women’s Federation’s thorough assessment, 380 valid questionnaires were collected from a pool of 446 breadwinner mothers in the initial assistance group, achieving a coverage rate of 85.2%. Not only does this high response rate provide a representative sample, but it reflects the effectiveness of the data collection effort, ensuring the study captures the experiences and needs of a majority of participants.

Table 1 Changes in positive coping styles before and after receiving assistance (N = 380).
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Table 2 Assignment of main variables and descriptive analysis (N = 380).
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Table 3 Evaluation of the effectiveness of social support services for disadvantaged breadwinner mothers.
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In the survey, 64.5% of respondents identified themselves as low-income households receiving minimum subsistence allowances, according to the assistance program requirements. Due to difficult circumstances, many of these women are the primary economic and emotional support for their families. They are 62.6% single as a result of divorce, 15% have lost their husbands, 17.6% are supporting disabled husbands, and 4.7% have other challenges, such as husbands incarcerated, debt-ridden, or unmarried children. The average age of this group is about 43 years (standard deviation of 6.466), with most falling between 30 and 50 years of age, suggesting they still have the potential for work. However, their educational background is generally low: over 80% have only completed junior high school or below, with only about 7% having reached college-level education or higher. Furthermore, a significant 82.4% lack professional titles, skill certifications, or technical training, highlighting limited capacity for career advancement. Employment-wise, 16.3% are currently unemployed, 67.1% work part-time, 4.2% engage in agriculture, and just 12.4% hold relatively stable positions, including public welfare roles in urban and rural areas, contract roles in enterprises, and self-employment. Variable descriptions are provided in Table 2.

Outcome variable

The outcome variable in this study is positive coping style, defined as an individual’s tendency to adopt proactive, problem-solving behaviors when facing difficulties. To measure this, we developed a five-item scale tailored to the experiences of breadwinner mothers.

Item selection was based on two sources. First, we drew from established instruments such as the Simple Coping Style Scale (SCSQ) and the China Gerontological Social Tracking Survey (CLASS). In particular, three CLASS items—talking to others about personal troubles, adjusting personal behaviors to overcome challenges, and learning from how others handle similar situations—were especially relevant to the daily coping practices described by our target group.Second, we refined the scale through insights gained from exploratory interviews. Participants often described coping not in abstract psychological terms but through practical strategies such as seeking help, changing habits, or managing emotions. These observations informed two additional items, resulting in a concise, context-sensitive measure. Respondents were asked to assess how their coping strategies had changed after receiving program support, using a four-point Likert scale (1 = little or no change; 4 = fundamental change). Higher scores indicated greater improvement in the use of positive coping mechanisms.

The scale showed good internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = 0.706; standardized α = 0.710). Exploratory factor analysis yielded a single factor—positive coping style—with a KMO value of 0.745 and Bartlett’s test significance at p < 0.001, explaining 58.78% of the total variance. These results confirmed the scale’s structural validity. A detailed breakdown of item responses and descriptive statistics appears in Table 1.

Cause variable

The cause variable in this study is social support, which is operationalised into three dimensions, namely, perception, utilization, and evaluation of social support, based on Xiao Shuiyuan’s definition of the connotation of social support31, and taking into account the actual situation of the program and the purpose of the study.

First, awareness was assessed by asking respondents how familiar they were with the support program. Higher scores indicate greater knowledge and understanding, implying a stronger capacity to access available services. Second, utilization was measured by the number of different service types actually received. The questionnaire listed 12 categories, including financial aid, psychological counseling, vocational training, job referrals, educational and childcare support, eldercare, legal advice, and others. A higher score on this measure reflects broader use of support resources. Third, evaluation was based on participants’ subjective assessment of the program’s overall helpfulness and impact (see Table 3). The corresponding scale showed high internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = 0.940), confirming its reliability in capturing satisfaction with the support services.While informal support networks are also a component of social support, this study focuses specifically on the formal services provided through the program. To control for the presence of personal networks, participants were asked whether they had friends (aside from family) who could provide emotional or practical support. Results show that nearly 40% of breadwinner mothers lacked such connections (see Table 2), highlighting their dependence on institutional support.

Additionally, due to the unique characteristics of these breadwinner mother households, their families often have very limited capacity to provide support. This limited family support is, in fact, one of the primary reasons these women are forced to become the main “pillars” of their families. Because the family support they can rely on is so minimal, they bear the entire burden of supporting their households. Therefore, in this study, family support is not considered a relevant source of potential support for these women at this time. This approach allows for a more focused analysis of the formal social support provided by the assistance program and its impact on the lives of breadwinner mothers.

Mediating variable

The mediating variable in this study is general social trust. Existing studies measure social trust in two ways: one uses a scale to assess trust levels in various entities, then extracts types of trust using principal component analysis32;another directly asks respondents how much they trust the majority of people in society to reflect overall trust levels33.This study uses the latter measure because ‘breadwinner mothers’ often lack support from family and friends. The Helping Hand program is a government-run social support service. It offers a variety of resources and personnel. This program shows society’s collective care for disadvantaged groups. The social trust it builds is more about general trust in society than just trust in friends and acquaintances. Therefore, the social trust generated by the programme is closer to general trust in the majority of people in society than to special trust in family and friends or trust in acquaintances, so we use the term ‘general social trust’ to distinguish it from other types of social trust mentioned in previous studies. Therefore, we use general social trust to distinguish it from other types of social trust mentioned in previous studies (Descriptive statistical analysis showed that the mean value of the general social trust variable was 3.37, with a standard deviation of 0.887.)

Additionally, according to the stress theory model, the effect of a potential stress on a person depends on the degree to which the individual perceives it, i.e., stress perception or perceived stress34. Since there is a high correlation between coping styles and perceived stress, this study will control for the perceived stress experienced by disadvantaged breadwinner mothers. Perceived stress is assessed by asking respondents to evaluate the overall impact that family crises have had on their lives. Responses are categorized into four levels: “No impact,” “Minor impact,” “Significant impact,” and “Major impact,” with scores assigned from 1 to 4, respectively, to represent the perceived stress levels of breadwinner mothers regarding family crises. (Descriptive statistical analysis showed that the mean value of the perceived stress variable was 2.61, with a standard deviation of 0.823). Higher scores on this scale indicate a stronger level of perceived stress resulting from family crises, suggesting that family crises place substantial psychological pressure on these individuals. Additionally, we control for various individual characteristics and aspects of personal capital that could affect the positive coping styles of disadvantaged breadwinner mothers. These variables include age, household registration, education level, and professional skill level. Controlling for these factors allows us to better isolate and examine the impact of program-based social support on their positive coping styles (see Table 2 for details on the values of relevant variables and the sample composition). By accounting for these potential influences, the study can more accurately assess the unique role that structured social support plays in helping disadvantaged breadwinner mothers develop more resilient and proactive coping styles.

Having provided these variables and shown preliminary descriptive statistics, the next section discusses the results of the regression analysis. We utilize stepwise regression to analyze the direct impacts of social support variables on positive coping style and the mediating influence of general social trust. This method aids in identifying the principal explanatory variables that affect coping mechanisms among disadvantaged breadwinner mothers.

Result

Social support and the service effectiveness for the disadvantaged breadwinner mothers

To provide targeted support to disadvantaged “breadwinner mothers,” the Provincial Women’s Federation implemented a “Women’s Federation + Social Organizations” model that partnered with 33 organizations, including the XX Peishan Social Service Center, the XX Maternal and Infant Care Industry Association, and the XX County Loving Mothers’ Aid Group. These partner organizations, with significant experience in women’s welfare projects, maintained stable volunteers teams and, utilized perfessional case-tracking system, enabling them to address the unique challenges faced by this group. During the implementation, the Women’s Federation utilized its extensive network.Field assessments were performed by officials, executive committee members, and social workers to create three customized lists: the “needs list,” “resources list,” and “services list.” These lists were tailored for each breadwinner mother according to her distinct challenges, competencies, and pressing needs. To gain extensive social support and efficiently utilize community resources, women’s federations at different levels have investigated context-specific methods adapted to local circumstances. These include efforts such as “Women’s Federation + Charitable Enterprises + Service Stations” and “One-to-One Assistance + Personalized Follow-Up Visits.” The program seeks to combine resources from companies, demonstration bases for women’s development, and agricultural production centers to promote collective aid for individual households, thereby addressing the core issues effectively. These approaches have significantly improved the program’s implementation capability and refined the connection between the help offered and the beneficiaries’ actual needs.

For research purposes, the types of social support services provided under the program were categorized into 12 distinct forms, including direct financial assistance, psychological support, vocational training, employment and entrepreneurship recommendations, child education and care services, insurance donations, and legal consultation and assistance. Specific measures included one-on-one volunteer partnerships offering regular visits and material aid, mobilization of charitable enterprises and donors to fulfill micro-wishes such as home repairs and children’s room renovations, promotion of specialized insurance plans like “Women’s Health Insurance” to prevent poverty caused by illness, expanded cancer screening and health education initiatives for women, provision of eye-care lamps for the children of breadwinner mothers to ease caregiving burdens, and the development of women’s demonstration employment bases that prioritize hiring disadvantaged women.

In terms of service coverage, 85.3% of respondents had received at least one type of support 65.6% of respondents have received two or more types of support services, and 49.5% of respondents have received three or more types of services. It is worth noting that some breadwinner mothers, though formally registered as program recipients, had not yet received effective assistance or matched resources at the time of the survey, mainly due to the short project duration and regional disparities in the capacity of social organizations. Nonetheless, they remain a central focus of ongoing efforts.

An evaluation of service effectiveness, summarized in Table 3, revealed that the most significant improvements were observed in beneficiaries’ personal mental outlook and psychological state, followed by enhancements in family relationships and atmosphere. More moderate gains were noted in personal career development abilities and the alleviation of care giving burdens. Overall, respondents’ evaluations of the support services were positive. To address the overlap and strong correlations among the seven detailed evaluation items (excluding the overall service effectiveness rating), we applied principal component factor analysis. The results yielded a single factor—termed the “Social Support Evaluation Factor”—which explained 73.758% of the variance (KMO value = 0.923, Bartlett’s test of sphericity sig value = 0).Higher scores on this factor indicate higher subjective evaluations of the effectiveness of the social support provided by the program. This factor will also be used as one of the main predictor variables in regression analysis and hypothesis testing.

Consistent with these findings, access to structured social support services was associated with significant improvements in the positive coping styles of breadwinner mothers. As shown in Table 1, nearly 60% of respondents reported either major (33.9%) or fundamental (23.7%) changes in their ability to adjust their thinking to overcome difficulties. Similarly, almost 50% indicated major (31.6%) or fundamental (13.9%) improvements in their proactive emotional regulation and problem-solving behaviors. These results underscore the effectiveness of comprehensive, tailored support programs in enhancing resilience among disadvantaged women.

Results of testing two research hypotheses

To evaluate the hypotheses of this study, we performed a stepwise regression analysis to investigate the impacts and transmission mechanisms of the social support services offered by the breadwinner mothers assistance program on alterations in their positive coping styles before and after receiving support. The three dimensions of social support—awareness, evaluation, and utilization—were included as core predictor variables. The analysis was carried out in two stages: first, we assessed the direct effects of each dimension on coping outcomes; then, we introduced general social trust as a mediating variable to test its indirect role in linking social support with coping strategies (see Models 1–3 in Table 4).

Table 4 Analysis of the impact pathways of social support on the improvement of positive coping styles for “breadwinner mothers”.
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Models 1 and 3 demonstrate that, after considering demographic and psychosocial features, both the awareness of the assistance program and the respondents’ assessments of its efficacy were strongly correlated with enhancements in positive coping strategies. This shows that more familiarity and satisfaction with the program amongst breadwinner mothers correlated to a higher acceptance of constructive, problem-oriented coping behaviors.Interestingly, the use of social support services—measured by the number of service types received—did not exert a direct impact on coping outcomes. However, it showed a significant positive effect on general social trust, as illustrated in Model 2. All three dimensions of social support (perception, utilization, and evaluation) significantly enhanced participants’ trust in others in society. That is, those who were more informed about available support, received more types of services, and held more positive evaluations were more likely to report higher levels of generalized social trust. Furthermore, Model 3 confirms that general social trust itself plays an independent and significant role in promoting positive coping.

These findings collectively reveal a dual mechanism: both the perception and evaluation of social support services directly promote positive coping improvements, while at the same time exerting an indirect effect mediated through general social trust. However, the indirect impact effect is less pronounced than the direct influence effect in both groups. The total effect of social support evaluation on positive coping styles exceeds that of social support perception, indicating the necessity to enhance not only recipients’ perception of the social support service program but also the actual efficacy of the service to improve recipients’ sense of accessibility and satisfaction (refer to Table 5 and Fig. 2). The study hypothesis of this paper is partially validated. In summary, the empirical results provide partial support for the research hypotheses, offering valuable insights into how structured support initiatives can foster psychological resilience among disadvantaged breadwinner mothers.

Table 5 Indirect effect analysis.
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Fig. 2
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Path diagram of the impact mechanism.

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Discussion

Reanalysis of research results

The finding indicates that Perception and evaluation of social support directly enhance positive coping styles. The extent of social support utilization does not substantially influence individual positive coping strategies. This may be due to the aid program’s premise of delivering appropriate services based on the specific needs of each breadwinner mother. In practice, an increase in the variety of help services received by the recipient correlates with heightened utilization of the assistance program, suggesting they may be confronting more significant practical issues in their lives. Individuals who utilize social support more extensively through this program typically encounter more significant life challenges. The assistance program has insufficiently addressed their challenging circumstances due to its limited duration, which limits its capacity to help them develop positive coping strategies. Future research should evaluate the duration of social support services provided, while examining possible differences in both the immediate and long-term effects of social support utilization on beneficiaries. This research could provide significant insights into improving the timing and efficacy of social support interventions for individuals facing challenging circumstances.

We multiplied the three dimensions of social support pairwise to obtain three interaction variables: the interaction of social support cognition and social support utilization, the interaction of social support cognition and social support evaluation, and the interaction of social support utilization and social support evaluation. These interaction terms were then included in the model (see Model 4) to test the interactive effects among the three dimensions of social support. The results indicate that only the interaction between social support utilization and social support evaluation has a significant impact on positive coping styles after receiving assistance (with an impact coefficient of 0.030 and a Sig. value of 0.009, showing strong statistical significance). Moreover, when this interaction term is included, the social support utilization variable shows a significant negative impact on positive coping styles (with an impact coefficient of -0.152 and a Sig. value of 0.012, showing moderate statistical significance). This further confirms that the more assistance the breadwinner mothers’ receive, the more challenging their circumstances might are, and the weaker their personal positive coping abilities become. However, with the same degree of social support utilization, people are more likely to adopt positive coping mechanisms and attitudes if the support program is more successful in enhancing personal life.

The models in Table 4 also reveal that the education level, professional skills, and amount of social support received by breadwinner mothers all contribute to strengthening their ability to cope positively after receiving assistance. Higher education and more developed skills represent stronger cultural capital, which, as suggested by Bourdieu’s theory, can be transformed into other forms of capital, such as economic or political capital. This transformation allows individuals to gain greater capacity and confidence in handling stress and facing difficult circumstances. Social networks, as a vital component of social support, represent an important form of informal support that complements more institutionalized assistance programs. The pathways through which social networks influence the positive coping strategies of breadwinner mothers mirror those observed in formal support initiatives. When taken together, both formal and informal sources of support appear to foster a similar outcome: they help empower disadvantaged individuals to develop more adaptive attitudes and behaviors, thereby enabling them to break out of adversity.

The findings clarify the mechanisms connecting social support, generalized social trust, and positive coping strategies, while providing practical implications for the design and implementation of social assistance programs. Service providers can enhance the impact of support interventions by increasing recipients’ awareness of available services and improving their perceived effectiveness. These improvements could increase general social trust and promote positive coping strategies, thereby cultivating the intrinsic motivation necessary to cope with life challenges. In addition, Investment in vocational skills training and cultural literacy for beneficiaries could improve the reconstruction of their social networks, which is essential to enhancing their ability for positive coping strategies. These programs deal with immediate needs while simultaneously improving the long-term resilience and empowerment of disadvantaged breadwinner women.

Robustness analysis of predictive models

To verify the robustness of the aforementioned estimation results, this study employs a variable replacement method for robustness testing. Specifically, we replaced the three variables of social support cognition, social support utilization, and social support evaluation, then re-conducted stepwise regression analysis. The variable substitution strategy is as follows: First, we replaced social support cognition by asking respondents, “Have you felt that the women’s federation organizations at all levels are helping you?” Responses were grouped into four categories: “not at all,” “a little,” “a lot,” and “very strongly.” The specific responses and assigned values of the variable of perceived degree of social support were recorded as: no feeling at all = 1, feeling a little = 2, feeling more = 3, and feeling strongly = 4, and the higher the value, the higher the perception of the social support services provided by the Women’s Federation organizations by the “breadwinner mothers”. Descriptive analysis showed that over 90% of breadwinner mothers reported feeling some degree of support from women’s federation organizations, with 6.6% selecting “not at all,” 37.9% choosing “a little,” 38.7% indicating “a lot,” and 16.8% indicating “very strongly.” Scores ranging from 1 to 4 were assigned to these responses, where higher scores reflected a stronger perception of the support services provided by the federation. Second, we replaced social support utilization by asking, “Do you currently have regular volunteers providing long-term services for you and your family?” (This variable was treated as a dummy variable in the model, with 0 indicating no and 1 indicating yes) If respondents reported having access to long-term volunteer services, it was taken as an indication of higher utilization of social support resources. Finally, As a robustness check, the overall subjective evaluation of service effectiveness—captured by asking respondents to what extent the assistance program had improved their lives—was used as an alternative measure for the social support evaluation variable (see Table 3 for variable coding and descriptive statistics). This substitution offers a simplified yet representative indicator of respondents’ overall perception of the program’s effectiveness. (Correlational analysis further confirmed the validity of this approach: the composite factor score for social support evaluation was found to be highly correlated with the respondents’ overall effectiveness rating, with a Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.860 and a significance level of p = 0.000).

We then included the three replacement variables of social support in the model and conducted stepwise regression analysis again (see Models R1, R2, and R3 in Table 6). The results indicate that the impact paths of the three replacement variables on the positive coping styles of breadwinner mothers are basically consistent with the baseline model. The higher the perception of social support services provided by the women’s federation organizations and the higher the overall evaluation of support services, the higher their general social trust and the more their positive coping abilities are mobilized. Additionally, regular volunteer service support can also enhance the social trust of breadwinner mothers, but it does not directly affect their positive coping styles. These results suggest that the conclusions of this study are robust.

Table 6 Robustness analysis of the impact of social support on the improvement of positive coping styles of breadwinner mothers.
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Differential analysis

Although the social network of individuals serves as an essential channel for breadwinner mothers to access external support, and social support has a significant impact on positive coping styles, our study revealed that this group’s level of social interaction is not particularly strong. When respondents were asked, “Do you have friends, besides family members, with whom you can share your feelings or receive help in daily life?” a notable 36.6% reported that they did not have any friends available to fulfill this supportive role. This finding suggests that a significant portion of breadwinner mothers lack the personal connections needed for regular emotional or practical support. As a result, we used the social status of breadwinner mothers as a criterion for grouping, dividing them into two subgroups: those with friends and those without friends. We then examined and compared the varying impacts of social support on their positive coping styles, both before and after receiving assistance, across these two subgroups.

As shown in Models 5 and 6 of Table 7, for breadwinner mothers who reported having no friends, higher utilization of social support services and better evaluation of the effectiveness of these services were linked to stronger positive coping abilities. Additionally, educational level was found to enhance their positive coping skills. Among breadwinner mothers who reported having friends capable of offering support, the impact of assistance-based social support on positive coping transformations was mainly reflected in two dimensions: the perception of support and the evaluation of support services. However, the utilization of social support did not significantly enhance their positive coping strategies; in fact, its regression coefficient was negative. A comparison of models reveals that breadwinner mothers with access to informal social support exhibited a more diverse set of influencing factors on their coping strategies. This suggests that these individuals are able to draw from a broader range of resources to develop or strengthen their positive coping abilities. In contrast, those lacking social support networks displayed a narrower pattern of influencing factors, relying more heavily on the availability and effectiveness of formal support services.

Table 7 Group differences in the impact of social support on the positive coping styles of breadwinner mothers.
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These findings offer important practical insights: in the delivery of social support services, priority should be given to recipients who lack informal social networks, ensuring that they receive more immediate and robust assistance tailored to their heightened dependency on formal support mechanisms.

Conclusion

This study used a quantitative methodology to analyze an assistance program in a Chinese province, focusing on the impact of social support services on the development of positive coping styles in this group. Hypothesis testing and stepwise regression analysis indicate that heightened awareness of social support services, coupled with favorable assessments of those services, directly enhances breadwinner mothers’ ability to employ positive coping strategies. Furthermore, these characteristics indirectly facilitate the cultivation of positive coping mechanisms by strengthening the mothers’ confidence in society as a whole. Theoretically, the study addresses gaps in the current literature. Previous research has generally confirmed the beneficial effects of social support on personal well-being and stress management; however, limited studies have rigorously investigated the influence of organized, government-sponsored assistance programs on fostering effective coping behavior. This study also examines current theoretical discussions concerning the mediating function of general social trust. While previous literature has proposed that trust may bridge the relationship between social support and psychological outcomes, empirical confirmation in marginalized populations has been limited. Our results substantiate this mediating mechanism, suggesting that the enhancement of social trust is not only a byproduct of support receipt but also an essential pathway through which positive coping styles are strengthened. This insight refines the existing theoretical models by emphasizing the psycho-social processes underlying support interventions. In addition, by highlighting the differentiated effects of support perception, utilization, and evaluation, the study offers a nuanced perspective that enriches the discussion on how various dimensions of social support interact to promote psychological resilience.

This study experimentally validated the relationship between social support and coping styles within a specific, previously under examined group: disadvantaged breadwinner mothers. While previous studies have broadly affirmed the benefits of social support, few have studied how formalized assistance programs function within marginalized groups, or how general social trust mediates their impact. It suggests that mere access to support resources is insufficient; individuals’ subjective experiences—how they perceive and evaluate the support—are critical to mobilizing positive coping behaviors. This finding contributes to a more granular understanding of the dynamics between external support systems and internal psychological responses.

There are, of course, some limitations to the findings of this study: the highly organized nature of the programs examined in this study, compared to other forms of social support, and the specificity of the group of “breadwinner mothers” require caution in extrapolating the findings of this study to evaluate the effects of social support services for other disadvantaged groups. The results of this study need to be evaluated with caution when applied to other disadvantaged groups. As the helping intervention develops in depth, more explicit and implicit social support effects should be further explored in subsequent studies. In future studies, length of time receiving social support services can be added as a predictor variable to assess the differential impact of different lengths of social support utilization on recipients’ positive coping styles; and a more rigorous baseline pre-post test can be used to measure the degree of change in recipients’ positive coping styles before and after receiving support to compensate for the difference in positive coping styles. A more rigorous baseline pre-post test could also be used to measure the degree of change in positive coping styles between pre- and post-recipients to compensate for the shortcomings of the retrospective subjective self-report of recipients used in the present study and thus improve the precision of the study findings.