Social support and stress, depression, and cardiovascular disease

Social support is one of the most reliable predictors of better health outcomes, including lower cardiovascular disease morbidity and mortality. Although past research has focused on links between social support and health outcomes, much less work has explored whether social support is a mediator of the association between other psychological factors and cardiovascular disease. This chapter thus reviews the literature linking stress and depression to social support. It leverages the larger literature linking social support to health-relevant outcomes to propose a support mediational model linking stress and depression to cardiovascular health. Direct evidence for the model will be a priority for future research, along with the exploration of novel intervention implications.