Social support was previously regarded as acting only a stress modifier, but many recent studies have found a direct effect on stress. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the role of social support on job stress and psychosocial stress to determine whether it acts via direct effect or indirect effect.

This study was performed in May 2003. The study population consisted of 425 male workers in an automobile factory in Korea. Data were collected with structured self-administered questionnaires. We used JCQ(Job Contents Questionnaires) to measure job stress and social support, and PWI-SF(Psychosocial Well-being Index-Short Form) to measure stress outcome. We analysed the relationships using Structural Equation Modeling software AMOS4.

It was found that social support acts both as a direct stressor and an indirect stressor via job stress. However the direct effect was double the indirect effect.

The direct effect of social support on stress was the more major. Therefore social support is an independent stressor rather than a stress modifier in automobile factory workers.