Distinguishing types of social support: A qualitative synthesis

Having adequate social support available is regularly associated with lower levels of loneliness, depression, and other mental health disorders. However, research findings on this topic are sometimes inconsistent or conflicting, probably due to diverse conceptualisations of social support components and heterogeneous measures of social support. This narrative review identifies and describes core types of functional social support relevant to mental health and wellbeing. Three literature searches across three databases were used to select papers reporting taxonomies of social support, social support questionnaires, and reviews of social support. A taxonomy of social support types was constructed using inductive qualitative synthesis. Five core types of social support were identified and described: (1) emotional support, (2) social contact and companionship, (3) belonging support, (4) information and guidance support, and (5) tangible support. Emotional and tangible support were most frequently identified. Core elements of emotional support are opportunities for confiding provided by sympathetic listening and caring, which included affectionate support and esteem support. These five types of social support provide a robust set of criteria for informing the development of social support interventions and assessing the adequacy of social support measures.