Social network support refers to a range of different kinds of assistance and advantages facilitated by
people’s social ties. A key aspect of this category of social capital is that it focuses on the benefits accruing
to the individual ‘owning’ or ‘investing’ in the stock of social relationships, rather than on the spill-overs
for other individuals. However, the key difference from the ‘personal relationships’ is that social network
support defines a person’s stock of social capital in terms of the level of resources or support that a person
can draw from their social contacts rather than in terms of the extent or composition of the person’s social
networks (i.e. their personal relationships). There are many different types of support that an individual can
potentially access through their networks. These include: