NEGATIVE SOCIAL INTERACTIONS - ASSESSMENT AND RELATIONS TO SOCIAL SUPPORT, COGNITION, AND PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTRESS

Two studies investigated the relations among negative social interactions, perceived and enacted support, cognition about the self and others, and psychological distress through the use of a new measure of negative interactions. Although both negative social interactions and perceived support were consistent predictors of psychological distress, negative interactions were weakly or unrelated to perceived and enacted support. Further, factor analyses revealed that negative social interactions loaded on a negative affectivity factor, whereas enacted and perceived support loaded with positive affectivity, suggesting that positive affectivity may play an important role in social support processes. In addition, negative social interactions were related to low self-esteem, low interpersonal trust, external control beliefs, and many dysfunctional attitudes. Further, the link between negative interactions and distress could be accounted for by self-esteem, dysfunctional attitudes and external control beliefs. Although negative social interactions were related to stressful life events and hassles, negative interactions had incremental validity beyond these in predicting psychological symptoms.