THE RELATION OF PERCEIVED ANDRECEIVED SOCIAL SUPPORT TOMENTAL HEALTH AMONG FIRSTRESPONDERS: A META-ANALYTICREVIEW

摘要

There are plenty of theories that may support the protective role of socialsupport in the aftermath of potentially traumatic events. This meta-analytic review examined the role of received and perceived social supportin promoting mental health among first responders (e.g., firefighters,police officers, and paramedics or emergency medical services personnel).Results showed that the effect sizes derived from 37 empirical studiesranged from 0 to 0.46. The overall weighted mean effect size was ofmedium magnitude (r = 0.27). Moreover, moderator analysis showedthat the effect size of perceived social support (r = 0.31) was significantlyhigher than the effect size of received social support (r = 0.22).Participants' age and gender or research design did not exert aninfluence on the relationship between social support and mental health.Theoretical implications and limitations are discussed.