Does social support affect perceived stress? A research during the COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey

This study aims to examine the effects of multidimensional social support perceptions on the stress levels of people aged 18 and over. The universe of the study consists of individuals aged 18 and over living in Turkey; 802 people participated in the study where the convenience sampling method was used. The data were collected through a questionnaire created on the internet via Google Form. Descriptive statistical methods, reliability analysis, correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis were used to analyze the data. According to the results of the correlation analysis, negative and low-level relationships were found between perceived stress and the friend and the significant other dimensions of multidimensional social support, while negative and moderate relationships were found between perceived stress and family dimension. According to the regression analysis results, multidimensional social support explains 11% of the total variance in perceived stress. In the regression model, when the t-test results regarding the significance of the regression coefficient are examined, it is observed that the increase in the perceptions of the participants about the family dimension decreases the perceived stress levels statistically.