Some psychosocial aspects of nonlethal chondrodysplasias: V. Assessment of personal social support using the Personal Resource Questionnaire.

Social support has been shown to be an important influence on how an individual copes with a number of stresses, including acute and chronic illness, psychiatric morbidity, and life events. It can be thought of as a dynamic process consisting of a network of persons who are available to provide support, and the level of support that is perceived to be available from those persons. Patients with disproportionate short stature due to a chondrodysplasia might be expected to face greater challenges in developing a social support network. This study assessed social support among a group of dwarfed patients using the Personal Resource Questionnaire (PRQ85). The overall extent and functioning of social support appears comparable to that in the general population, but there are some differences when unmarried patients are compared with married patients and when those who have affected spouses are compared with those whose spouses are of average stature.