Frequency and Appraisal of Social Support in a Behavioral Weight Loss Program

Involving supportive others in Behavioral Weight Loss Programs (BWLP) is related to improved participant weight loss(e.g., Black, Gleser, & Kooyers, 1990), however little is known of the influence of naturally occurring (external to the intervention situation) support. Similarly overlooked is the role of social support to the numerous behavior changes required for successful weight loss. The current study evaluated the occurrence (i.e., frequency) and experience (i.e., helpfulness appraisal) of naturally occurring support in relation to behavioral and health outcomes. The primary goals were to examine the support – behavior change relationship for evidence of specificity and to evaluate the utility of measuring support appraisals as a tool for identifying resource-need match. Within these objectives, another aim of the study was to identify potentially distinct contributions of different sources of support. Hypothesis testing returned largely null results. Small sample size and low power are important considerations in explaining the null findings. However, attention is also called to other possible factors, including stage of behavior change and the “obesogenicity” of modern environments, which may have contributed to the current null findings and warrant further attention.