Social Support and Mental Health Resilience During Crises

Crises such as natural disasters, pandemics and armed conflicts pose significant threats to psychological well-being. Social support – encompassing emotional, instrumental and informational assistance from family, friends and broader social networks – has repeatedly been shown to bolster individual resilience, defined as the capacity to maintain or recover mental health in the face of adversity. This reciprocal interplay operates via multiple pathways: supportive relationships enhance coping strategies, sustain daily routines and foster adaptive cognitive appraisals, thereby reducing the onset or severity of depressive and anxiety symptoms. At a community level, social cohesion and collective efficacy contribute to shared sense-making and facilitate mobilisation of resources. Understanding these mechanisms has global relevance for designing interventions, guiding policy and reinforcing societal preparedness for future crises.

Research from Nature Portfolio

A large community-based study constructed a comprehensive psychosocial model examining how social support interacts with life satisfaction and resilience to influence depressive symptom severity in adults. Findings reveal that higher perceived support not only correlates with lower depressive severity but also mediates the positive effects of meaning in life on resilience. This work emphasises that social support operates as a crucial mediator between subjective well-being and psychological resilience, suggesting that interventions targeting network enhancement can indirectly augment resilience and reduce symptom burden.

Social Support and Mental Health Resilience During Crises publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in social support and mental health resilience during crises across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Social support: Emotional, instrumental or informational assistance received from social networks that enhances coping and well-being.

Psychological resilience: The capacity to adapt, maintain or restore mental health when confronted with significant stress or adversity.

Coping strategies: Cognitive or behavioural efforts employed to manage stressors, ranging from problem-focused actions to emotional regulation.

Mediating effect: A process by which a variable (mediator) explains the relationship between an antecedent and an outcome variable.

Buffering effect: A protective mechanism in which one variable reduces the negative impact of another, such as social support diminishing stress responses.

References

1. Social support enhances the mediating effect of psychological resilience on the relationship between life satisfaction and depressive symptom severity. Scientific Reports (2023).
2. Effects of sources of social support and resilience on the mental health of different age groups during the COVID-19 pandemic. BMC Psychiatry (2021).
3. Social relationships and depression during the COVID-19 lockdown: longitudinal analysis of the COVID-19 Social Study. Psychological Medicine (2021).
4. Perceived Social Support Protects Lonely People Against COVID-19 Anxiety: A Three-Wave Longitudinal Study in China. Frontiers in Psychology (2020).