There Are No Free Gifts! Social Support and the Need for Reciprocity Available to Purchase

Few discussions of aid or social support address the feelings that such support engenders in the support recipients. Yet receipt of support creates an emotional cost for the recipient and alters his/her perceived status as an independent member of a social group. This paper presents findings from a larger study of 202 African American and White parents of children with cancer, focusing on social support, social networks, and coping. Most discussions of social support highlight affective support and its relationship to psychological outcomes. Rarely are charitable gifts to individuals mentioned in the literature. Although both affective and material support are discussed in this paper, the data focus primarily on the financial support that was given to the parents as a tangible form of social support. Using Sahlin's model of reciprocity, I argue that the normal patterns of exchanges alter due to the pressing needs of providing support to those experiencing a crisis. I focus on the responses of the recipient and propose that an additional form of reciprocity operates where the support recipient returns the favor to a new person in need. I call this type of reciprocity "stepwise reciprocity." My findings suggest that the need and desire to reciprocate is a generalized feeling that cuts across gender, race, and socioeconomic distinctions. Applied anthropologists work in a variety of settings in which we can begin to target interventions that address this facet of the support process.