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Contribution to Book
Social support, social control and health behavior change in spouses
Psychology
  • Kieran T. Sullivan, Santa Clara University
  • Lauri A. Pasch
  • Katherine Hanson
  • Kathrine Bejanyan
Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Date
1-1-2010
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Abstract

Our work on support processes in intimate relationships has focused on how partners in committed relationships help one another contend with personal difficulties, and how partners elicit and provide support in their day-to-day interactions. We are particularly interested in how these support skills relate to marital outcomes (Pasch & Bradbury, 1998; Pasch, Harris, Sullivan, & Bradbury, 2004; Sullivan, Pasch, Eldridge, & Bradbury, 1998) and how they relate to behavior change in spouses (Sullivan, Pasch, Johnson, & Bradbury, 2006), especially health behavior changes. In this chapter, we review research examining the effects of social support and social control on spouses' health behaviors, propose a theory to account for discrepancies in these findings, and report initial data examining the usefulness of this theory in understanding the relationship between social support, social control, and partner health behavior.

Chapter of
Support Processes in Intimate Relationships
Editor
K.T. Sullivan
J. Davila
Comments
This material was originally published in Support Processes in Intimate Relationships by / edited by K.T. Sullivan & J. Davila, and has been reproduced by permission of Oxford University Press. For permission to reuse this material, please visit OUP permissions.
http://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195380170.003.0009
Citation Information
Sullivan, K.T., Pasch, L.A., Bejanyan, K. & Hanson, K. (2010). Social support, social control and health behavior change in spouses. In K.T. Sullivan & J. Davila (Eds) Support Processes in Intimate Relationships (pp. 219-239). New York: Oxford Press.