e-Campus - Work Wellness Institute

Social support refers to the exchange of tangible and intangible resources between people who belong to the same households, schools, neighborhoods, workplaces, organizations, and other environments. Social support has been identified as an important resource for dealing with life stressors, especially for working people. Workers with adequate social support tend to experience greater feelings of personal accomplishment, job satisfaction, engagement, and self-esteem. When social support is sufficient, workers also report better physical health and lower levels of stress, burnout, emotional exhaustion, depression, and inter-role conflict.

What is less clear, however, is why and how social support offers these protective effects for workers' physical and emotional well-being.

Social network research methods can help us begin to answer these important questions. Through social network studies, we can: 1) investigate the structural characteristics of workers' support systems; 2) understand how and why certain associations and interactions influence workers' health-related attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors; and 3) identify potential leverage points for future workplace safety and health interventions.

This session will use lecture and recent research findings to introduce attendees to the applications of social network research techniques in workplace safety and health science and practice.

You will learn:

• Basic characteristics of social network research
• Methods for structuring effective whole network and personal network research designs
• Approaches for analyzing social network data
• Practical applications of social network research techniques in workplace safety and health science and practice

Take home messages:

• Investigating the structural characteristics of workers' social networks helps us understand how and why social support buffers the effects of work-related stress.
• We can use social network research techniques to inform future scientific studies and design more effective workplace safety and health interventions.