Social Support and Disability

Abstract Abstract People with disabilities derive multiple benefits from social support. Being interconnected with friends, family, and the broader disability community is associated with a multitude of positive outcomes, although factors such as ableism and structural barriers prevent many people with disabilities from receiving adequate and satisfactory support. This chapter explores the benefits of social support for people with disabilities and the challenges they face in accessing it through a biopsychosocial lens. It discusses key theories surrounding social support and interventions to increase support, ending with future directions for studying social support in disabled populations, including more precise conceptualizations of support, applying current social support theories to disability, and drawing from more diverse samples.