Social support at work and mental distress: A three-wave study of normal, reversed, and reciprocal relationships.

The findings partly align with the hypothesis that social support is related to lower levels of mental distress but also suggest that mental distress can reduce levels of social support. While the findings also suggest a mutual interrelation between social support and mental distress, this is not a consistent reciprocal causation. Rather, and due to the variation in reciprocity between time points, it appears to be a cyclical process, which needs further investigation.