The psychological costs of social support imbalance

Psychological well-being benefits of receiving social support are well-established. Growing evidence also suggests parallel benefits of giving support. However, much less attention has been given to understanding the psychological correlates of imbalance in giving and receiving social support. We examined associations between social support (given, received, and imbalance) and psychological well-being in multiple relationship types (friends, family, and spouse). Greater levels of both receiving and giving social support were independently associated with more favorable psychological well-being, while imbalance in the ratio of support given and received was associated with poorer psychological well-being. Findings varied between relationship types and across age.