Stress, social support and fear of disclosure

Purpose. This study was aimed at developing a measure of the capacity to use social support effectively. Methods. The responses of 329 participants to a preliminary 130‐item scale derived from a ‘scenario’ study were subjected to principal axis factoring. This resulted in a 48‐item Interpersonal Trust Questionnaire (ITQ) comprising three factors labelled fear of disclosure (FOD), social coping (SC) and social intimacy (SI). A second sample of 380 participants then completed the final form of the ITQ together with the rehearsal (rumination) and emotional inhibition scales from the Emotion Control Questionnaire (ECQ; Roger & Najarian, 1989), the Social Support Questionnaire (SSQ; Sarason, Levine, Basham & Sarason, 1983) and the Inventory of Socially Supportive Behaviours (ISSB: Barrera, 1981). Data on deterioration in health status over a period of adaptation were also available for a subsample of these participants. An additional sample provided scores on the ITQ and the Network Orientation Scale (NOS; Vaux, Burda & Stewart, 1986). Results. The scales were found to correlate in predictable ways with measures of both social support and emotion control. However, there were gender differences confirming the preference amongst women for emotional rather than informational support. Regression analyses using deterioration in health status as the dependent variable showed an effect for FOD, but this was significant only amongst women. Conclusions. The findings indicate the importance of taking both individual differences and availability of support into account, and it is hoped that the new ITQ scale will offer the means for including relevant individual differences in future studies of the role of social support in moderating stress responses.