Background: There is extensive knowledge on how social support benefits recipients, yet providers are often studied from a resource-depletion perspective. Drawing on self-determination theory, we propose that providing support enhances daily affective well-being, particularly when it fosters autonomy, competence, and relatedness. If theoretically valid, this effect should persist across time and contexts.
Methods: Following a measurement-burst design, three ecological momentary assessment (EMA) studies involving 373 adults (55% women) were conducted 3 months apart. Participants received mobile phone prompts three times daily for seven days to assess their emotional state and whether they had provided support in the past 60 minutes (yes/no). If so, they reported momentary fulfillment of autonomy, competence, and relatedness needs.
Findings: For 22,653 measurement points, spontaneous acts of support were reported in 23% of cases, with no significant gender differences observed. Across all three studies, the same pattern of relationships emerged. Within-person analyses showed that fulfilling autonomy, competence, and relatedness needs following support provision predicted an increase in positive emotions (controlling for autoregression). In contrast, a decrease in negative emotions was unrelated to post-support evaluations of momentary changes in the relationship with the recipient. However, within-person variance in relatedness need satisfaction was the highest.
Discussion: As hypothesized, the momentary affective well-being in everyday life can be modified by acts of support, with effects linked to perceived momentary satisfaction of basic needs. The robustness of these findings is strengthened by replication across three EMA bursts.