Coping, social support and chronic disease: A research agenda

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Abstract
Research on coping and social support of people who suffer from chronic diseases has grown rapidly over the past 15 years. Unfortunately this has failed to provide clear answers to major questions such as which coping strategies are the most helpful in adapting to adverse conditions, how the use of such strategies can be encouraged, or how the social network should be approached in order to receive support. In order to identify promising topics for further research on these issues, we discuss relevant literature on: (1) coping strategies and social support available to those who suffer from chronic diseases; (2) determinants of coping and social support; and (3) the extent to which different aspects of well-being are affected by coping and social support. It is argued that a future research agenda should be aimed at answering the following questions: (1) improving coping assessment by incorporating adaptive tasks accompanying chronic diseases; (2) paying greater attention to the role of beliefs and illness cognitions as determinants of coping; (3) developing proximal measures of effects of coping on well-being; and (4) establishing a theoretical link between coping and social support by clarifying the role of social interactions in the coping process.