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Social Support in Couples: Marriage as a Resource in Times of Stress. Carolyn E. Cutrona. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. 1996. 150 pp. Hardcover ISBN 0-8039-4883-2. Softcover ISBN 0-9039-4884-0. $38.00 cloth, $16.95 paper.
This book provides a useful survey of some of the theoretical issues confronting researchers interested in studying social support in the context of marital relationships. In addition, the book articulates Carolyn Cutrona's own thoughtprovoking orientation to theory and research on social support among married couples. An important point underscored in Cutrona's book is the notion that potentially supportive transactions take place in a social context and that, in order to understand how such interactions unfold and how they influence the participants, researchers must take into account features that are unique to specific categories of relationships. Cutrona's book is, therefore, timely. It articulates a perspective that is increasingly being adopted in the field of social support; namely, that social support processes are...