Social Support and Coping: Applications for the Study of Female Drug Abuse

This paper addresses two issues: (a) the utility of applying the social support‐stress‐coping paradigm to the study of substance abuse, and (b) refinements needed in conceptualization of the coping aspect of the model. A brief review of the more recent theoretical and methodological treatments of social support is followed by an examination of two limitations of current perspectives. The first limitation considered is the failure of previous work to address the behavioral components of the hypothesized connection between social support and stress reduction, and the second is the lack of “bidirectionality” in social support models. Data from a study of heroin addicted women is used to illustrate how refinements in the coping aspect of the model, in particular, may help clarify the role of social support in stress reduction. Findings included the indication that, for heroin addicted women, the absence of social support is associated with the use of non‐social, potentially dysfunctional coping strategies. A similar pattern did not exist for men.