Self-evaluative consequences of social support receipt: The role of context self-relevance

Past research suggests that receiving social support can increase distress if it threatens self-esteem, self-efficacy, or competence. These costs may be more apparent in self-relevant contexts, as such concerns should be more salient in these situations. This research tests whether context self-relevance moderates affective responses to support receipt and whether this pattern is mediated by self-evaluation. We report support for these hypotheses in both a daily diary study (N = 304 couples) of real-world stress and a laboratory experiment (N = 77 students) in which support receipt and task self-relevance are manipulated. We discuss connections between this work and the broader literature on social support receipt, including how other social processes (e.g., social comparison) may contribute to the costs associated with support receipt.