People receive many benefits from their social groups. Social support is only one of them. Christy experienced this herself: she noticed that she can deal with problems more easily when she receives help from her friends. This is beneficial for her health, because she experiences less stress. Benefits from group memberships are mutual. Within Christy's football group, the children can both give and receive help. For example, if Christy knows how to perform a ball trick she might explain it to the other group members. As a result, all group members feel that they can achieve much more than they could alone. In psychology, we have found that people who experience such advantages from their social groups are healthier and experience less stress.
However, it is not the support of just anyone that can have a positive effect on your health. The health benefits of social support depend on your social identity. This is something researchers have confirmed in experiments. In these, participants were asked to perform a speech in front of two strangers (who were actually members of the research team).

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