Social Support and Adaptive Emotion Regulation: Links Between Social Network Measures, Emotion Regulation Strategy Use, and Health

Social support, as perceived and experienced within one's social network, has been associated with greater well-being and favorable health outcomes. The transition to college marks a critical time in which social support not only strengthens interpersonal bonds, but also may help an individual discover and utilize various coping strategies to lower risks associated with negative emotions, which may result in better health and well-being. In the present study, we collected data from a large sample of undergraduate students (N = 376) and conducted preregistered analyses to examine links between students' perceived social support in residential college communities, patterns of emotion regulation strategy use, and multiple indicators of health and well-being. Overall, we found partial support for our hypotheses, with some associations between social support and patterns of emotion regulation strategy use, as well as associations between strategy use and health indicators. All results held when adjusting for participants' age and gender. Taken together, the present findings revealed reliable links between social network indicators, emotion regulation strategy use, and health. Future research can extend these findings by observing how these relationships unfold over time, to better understand how people manage their emotions by drawing on their personal networks.