A Review and Meta-Analysis of Person-Centered Messages and Social Support Outcomes

2012/01/01 by Andrew C. High, James Price Dillard · 4 citations
Psychology · #Attachment and Relationship Dynamics #Behavioral Health and Interventions #Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development

paper · doi:10.1080/10510974.2011.598208

openalex publication_date 2012/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29

Abstract

Person-centered messages are a form of social support that has been theoretically and empirically linked to a variety of outcomes. Scholars would benefit by recognizing the influence of person-centered messages across a number of studies in the absence of statistical artifacts. This article reports a meta-analysis testing the association between person-centered messages and social support outcomes across 23 studies. Our results demonstrate a positive linear association between person-centeredness and actual effectiveness, and an even stronger linear relationship between person-centeredness and perceived effectiveness. The association between person-centeredness and support outcomes was attenuated in confederate-based methodologies. Moreover, the data suggest that scholars need to more precisely conceptualize and empirically assess the differences between the nine levels of the person-centered hierarchy.

Citations

• The Development of Comforting Communication Skills in Childhood and Adolescence
• Injury research and injury prevention in physical education.

Cited by

• Bridging supportive communication and interpersonal emotion regulation: An integrative review
• One-size-fits-all or friend-specific? A social relations model approach to social support in friendships
• Alignment Without Understanding: A Message- and Conversation-Centered Approach to Understanding AI Sycophancy
• Understanding availability of comforting support messages from a networked attachment perspective

Related

• The Effects of Person-Centered Social Support Messages on Recipient Distress Over Time within a Conversation
• Evaluating the Scope and Theoretical Mechanisms of Person-Centered Social Support: The Case of the Comforting Computer Program
• Testing a Dual-Process Theory of Supportive Communication Outcomes: How Multiple Factors Influence Outcomes in Support Situations
• The Role of Person-Centered Messages, Parallel Disclosures, and Reactance When Communicating Support for Parental Death
• How the Comforting Process Fails: Psychological Reactance to Support Messages