Quantifying the Influence of Social Support on Depression and Anxiety: An Empirical Study

Social support plays a significant role in addressing mental health, especially depression and anxiety. The present study evaluated the association between social support with depression and anxiety and whether social support has predictive abilities, in a healthy population. The assessment of participants was done through Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), Generalised Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7) and Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS). The study was conducted in a semi-rural area in Rajasthan, wherein 110 healthy individuals (56 females, 54 males) participated. A strong negative correlation of -.65 and -.58 was found between social support with depression and social support with anxiety, respectively. Additionally, an R-square of .419 and .335 was found between social support with depression and anxiety, respectively, highlighting that social support explained 42% of variance in depression and 33.5% of variance in anxiety. The findings address the research gap and offer insights in incorporating social support networks in intervention programs.