Social Support in the Structure of Personality Resources in Individuals with Disabilities

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Abstract

The paper focuses on the issues of social support of individuals with disabilities and describes its role in the development and maintenance of subjective well-being of persons in situations of disability. A special external resource for overcoming unfavorable developmental conditions, social support is interlocked in a continuous relationship with psychological resources of personality. One of its distinctive features is that it implies the subject's activity aimed at overcoming difficult life situation on his/her own. When the person's bodily resources are insufficient (as it happens in situations of physical disabilities), the role of macro- and microso¬cial resources in supporting his/her well-being naturally increases. However, when both social and bodily resources are scarce, it is the individual's personality that stands in the gap. The research described in the paper explored the relationship between microsocial resources (support of family and friends, satisfaction with this support) and psychological resources of resistance and self-regulation of personality. The sample consisted of 210 subjects (48 students with disabilities, 162 healthy subjects). The outcomes revealed certain differences between the subsamples with low and high rates of social support which suggest that the subjects' perceptions and evaluations of the support contribute to their psychological resources of coping and self-regulation, acti¬vating and/or reinforcing the existing potential of their personalities.

General Information

Keywords: social support, disability, subjective well-being, resources of personality

Journal rubric: Developmental Psychology

Article type: scientific article

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17759/chp.2015110311

For citation: Leontiev D.A., Lebedeva A.A., Silantieva T.A. Social Support in the Structure of Personality Resources in Individuals with Disabilities . Kul'turno-istoricheskaya psikhologiya = Cultural-Historical Psychology, 2015. Vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 120–134. DOI: 10.17759/chp.2015110311. (In Russ., аbstr. in Engl.)

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Information About the Authors

Dmitriy A. Leontiev, Doctor of Psychology, Leading Research Fellow, The Laboratory for Comparative Research in Quality of Life, National Research Tomsk State University, Head of International Laboratory of Positive Psychology of Personality and Motivation; Professor of Faculty of Social Sciences, School of Psychology, HSE University, Moscow, Tomsk, Russia, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2252-9805, e-mail: dmleont@gmail.com

Anna A. Lebedeva, PhD in Psychology, Researcher, The Laboratory for Comparative Research in Quality of Life, National Research Tomsk State University, Associate Professor: Faculty of Social Sciences, School of Psychology; Senior Research Fellow: International Laboratory of Positive Psychology of Personality and Motivation, HSE University, Tomsk, Russia, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5919-5338, e-mail: anna.alex.lebedeva@gmail.com

Tatiyana A. Silantieva, Specialist of the City Institute for Integrative (inclusive) Education, Moscow State University of Psychology and Education, graduate student of NRU Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia, e-mail: tanyasilantieva@yandex.ru

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