Support in close relationships: Is it better to assess the content or the type of relationships?

Theoretical concepts such as support are linked with the experiences of individual people. Operationalizing them involves translating the theoretical concept into empirical variables: questions, research items, and so on. Answers to a straightfor-ward question about the degree of support in a relationship can serve as a direct indicator of the experience of being supported. However, because a single question is not a very reliable measure and because respondents can differ in their interpreta-tion of "support, " it is better to specify the set of features or components that can be discerned within the theoretical concept. Early empirical studies have almost always based their operationalization of support on the characteristics associated with specific types of primary (or close-Weiss 1987) relationships. The label assigned to a relationship is generally used as the indicator of the relationship type. Relationship types are often related to the roles people fulfill as, for instance, parents, employees, or neighbors. Litwak and Szelenyi (1969) argue, for example, that the possibilities to provide support are determined by the characteristics of types of relationships. Thus, they suggest tha