The importance of examining both the amount and balance of social support: A study on the relationship between social support and subjective well-being of older Japanese adults

Previous studies have highlighted that the balance between social support individuals receive and that they provide plays a crucial role in their well-being. However, these studies predominantly focused on the balance without distinguishing situations where individuals receive and provide abundant support from situations where they receive and provide limited support. The present research emphasizes the importance of concurrently considering the amount and balance of social support. With this goal, we compared models focusing solely on balance to those considering both amount and balance, utilizing data from older Japanese adults (n = 1,324). The models focusing solely on balance yielded mixed findings: positive relationships between balance and subjective well-being emerged only when variables indicating balance were created in a particular manner. In contrast, the models examining both amount and balance provided more reliable and comprehensive insights. First, the amount of support received and provided independently had a positive relationship with subjective well-being. Second, balance was not related to subjective well-being: individuals receiving or providing abundant support (i.e., unbalanced) reported similar levels of well-being to those receiving and providing abundant support (i.e., balanced). Furthermore, they reported higher levels of well-being than those receiving and providing limited support (i.e., balanced).