The terms support provider and support recipient are widely used in the literature on social support with little consideration of the model of communication they imply: that support is a resource or service given by a provider to a recipient to bring about assistance with a problem experienced by the recipient. Studies usually presume that over the course of a given troubles talk conversation (or even over the course of coping with some life stress), one person is the support provider and the other is the support recipient. These interactive roles are defined with reference to a problem external to the conversation: Once a problem or trouble has been identified, the recipient is the person who has the problem and the provider is the other person. It is assumed to be relatively clear who has the problem and, therefore, who is the provider and who is the recipient. Finally, the terms connote an economic exchange (many researchers even refer to troubles talk conversations as support transactions). Providers and recipients deal in goods, services, or resources rather than in symbols, routines, or relationships.

The provider/receiver transaction model is consistent with the historical impetus for the study of social support. One prominent area of social support research evolved out of interests in individual coping resources that protected a person from stress as well as with the possibility that social support might serve as an alternative to professional health services.