Increasing Social Support for Depressed Individuals: A Cross-Cultural Assessment of an Affect-Expectancy Approach.

Depression is a mental illness affecting 121 million people. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) recently launched a national, bi-lingual (English and Spanish), campaign to motivate young adults to support friends with mental illness. This current paper highlights and assesses the utility of two theoretically-derived variables for increasing the amount of social support received by all depressed individuals: 1) affect, and 2) social support outcome expectations (SSOEs). In accord with SAMHSA's bi-lingual campaign, two studies were conducted. One consisted of a Spanish-Dominant Hispanic sample, the other Non-Hispanics. Results indicate that affect, SSOEs, and the interaction of the two, accounted for more than 50% of the variance of social support intentions (67% in the Hispanic sample when familism was considered). Moreover, an unexpected finding: perceiving a lack of willpower to be the cause of depression resulted in greater sympathy among the Hispanic sample, but increased anger among Non-Hispanics. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]