Abstract
The buffer effect of social support on depression among immigrants. The influence of stressful life events and social support networks on depression was analysed in a sample of immigrants. The Mannheim Social Support Questionnaire, the CES-D, and the scale of problems of Die & Seelbach were used. According to bivariates correlations, those immigrants with unfavourable vital circumstances and those that considered their social support system as insufficient, obtained higher scores on the depression scale. Furthermore, in the lineal regression analysis an interactive effect between severity of problems and sufficiency of social support was obtained: the sufficiency of social support showed a buffer role only when individuals experienced a big amount of personal problems. Thus, the buffering effect of social support was confirmed.
