Anger Coping Styles and Perceived Social Support

Abstract

This study was based on the hypothesis that perceived availability of social support, independent of the influence of social desirability, would be inversely related to both anger-in and anger-out coping styles. Participants were 101 college-aged Caucasians in the Northeast. In a regression analysis, the anger coping scales together accounted for 9% of the unique variance in total social support. Anger-in, but not anger-out, was a significant predictor of social support independent of the effects of social desirability. In addition, anger-in, independent of response bias, was inversely related to deficiencies in appraisal support, self-esteem support, tangible support, and belongingness support. These findings were interpreted in the context of the psychosocial vulnerability model of disease risk, which suggests that deficits in perceived social support may represent a diathesis for ill health among individuals exhibiting an anger-suppression coping style.