Perceived social support, coping, and symptoms of distress in American and Spanish students

The aim of this study was to test whether coping responses mediated the influence of perceived social support on symptoms of anxiety/depression, social withdrawal, and aggressive behavior in American (N = 349) and Spanish students (N = 437). Participants completed measures of perceived support, social stress, coping, and distress. Coping partially mediated relations between perceived support and distress, with coping mediation most evident in individuals facing high levels of social stress. Decreased use of disengagement coping by individuals with high perceived support appears to partially explain the protective value of perceived social support. Multiple group covariance structure analysis showed that models linking perceived support, coping, and distress were very similar across cultures, suggesting that the mechanisms underlying decreased risk for individuals with high perceived support may be relatively independent of cultural context, and that interventions designed to increase perceived support and decrease disengagement could be appropriate in both cultures.