Types and sources of social support for managing job stress in critical care nursing

The theoretical model of occupational stress developed by LaRocco, House, and French, (1980) was tested in relation to job stress in critical care nursing. A sample of 164 female critical care nurses was obtained from eight hospitals. The variables of perceived social support, perceived job stress, job dissatisfaction, and psychological symptoms were measured, and specific types and sources of support were examined. Findings from the full sample supported all the main effects in the model but none of the buffering effects. For the married group, a specific type of support (work support) explained 24% of the variance of perceived job stress, nearly double that of the overall social support measure for this group. For the unmarried group, a specific source of support (from relatives) explained 10% of the variance in perceived job stress and 16% of the variance in psychological symptoms--double or triple the effect of the total network support score for the full sample.