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ABSTRACT
Background: Psychological stress among married women has emerged as an important public health concern owing to the increasing complexity of balancing marital, familial, occupational, and social responsibilities. Although perceived emotional support is recognized as a critical protective psychosocial resource, community-based evidence from contemporary urban Indian populations remains limited.
Objective: This study examined the relationship between perceived emotional support and psychological stress among married women and evaluated the predictive contribution of emotional support to stress within an urban Indian context.
Methods: A quantitative cross-sectional correlational design was employed involving 300 married women residing in Bengaluru, India. Participants completed the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) and the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10). Data were analysed using IBM SPSS Statistics (Version 26) through descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, Pearson's correlation, independent-samples t-tests, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), and simple and multiple linear regression analyses.
Results: Perceived emotional support demonstrated excellent internal consistency (Cronbach's α = .908) and was significantly and negatively associated with psychological stress (r = −.612, p < .001). Regression analysis indicated that perceived emotional support independently explained 37.5% of the variance in psychological stress (R² = .375), highlighting its substantial predictive contribution. Women reporting high emotional support experienced significantly lower stress than those reporting moderate or low support. Working women also reported comparatively higher stress than homemakers.
Conclusions: The findings identify perceived emotional support as a significant protective psychosocial resource associated with lower psychological stress among married women. The study extends existing evidence by providing culturally contextualized empirical data from an urban Indian community and underscores the importance of integrating emotional support into counselling practice, family-focused interventions, workplace well-being programmes, and preventive mental health strategies aimed at strengthening women's psychological resilience.
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