Social Connectedness and Health

Question 1

Describe the background and context surrounding social relationships and health

Answer 1

• the link between social relationships has been explored a series of experimental and prospective studies (e.g. House et al., published a review 1988 in major journal Science, flagged up the potential issue of increased mortality risk).
• Baumeister & Leary’s more conceptual 1995 review was important for making theoretical links to key psychological ideas – attachment, group membership, cognition, affect.
• links them all to the idea of ‘belonging’ and then highlighting it’s importance for wellbeing.
• there are now many, many studies exploring the relationship between social relationships and various specific aspects of health, for specific populations.
• Fragmentation was a problem for readers of this literature, and for reformers hoping to act on it.
• For example, issues for older people were seen as distinct from those for young adults, or for rural vs urban etc.
• This paper notable for unifying everyone’s interest:
• Holt-Lunstad et al’s (2010) large meta-analysis showed that mortality was an increased risk of poor social relationships across all contexts and populations - provides the evidence needed to see this is a robust and real problem that we should expend political, social and financial resources on.

Question 2

Define what is meant by Social Capital.

Answer 2

• One’s ability to draw upon social resources in one’s community through relationships with others.
• Through those resources, social capital links directly to economic capital (e.g. transportation).
• This means that there is a ‘health inequalities’ component to the relationship between social connectedness and health.

Question 3

What is meant by Social Capital in terms of individual health outcomes?

Answer 3

• the individual’s ability to build reciprocal relationships, and to communicate effectively about their needs within those relationships, may be more important for mobilising these resources than any differences between communities.
• (Rocco L, Suhrcke M. Is social capital good for health? A European perspective. Copenhagen, WHO Regional Office for Europe, 2012.)
• This means that there is an important psychological aspect to social capital.

Question 4

Describe the attempt made to increase social capital more marginalised and vulnerable communities.

Answer 4

• late 1990s and early 2000s, the UK government’s Sure Start children’s centres were an attempt to increase the social capital of parents from more marginalised and vulnerable communities.
• Direct benefits to home environments were reported (DfE (2010) The Impact of Sure Start Local Programmes on five-year-olds and their families…
• including subsequently indirect benefits to health (and direct savings to healthcare providers) were reported (Cattan et al., (2019).
• but by then subsequent governments had closed most of the programme.
• One of the lessons here is that it sometimes takes a long time to see the benefits of investing in the social aspect of health.

Question 5

What is identity?

Answer 5

• involves studying the groups we belong to, and understanding what our group memberships mean to us.

-Alex Haslam and colleagues have done lots of important work here, showing how group membership affects aspects of psychological wellbeing (like mood, efficacy and esteem), and how this affects the way that we engage in ‘health behaviours’ (like exercise), respond to symptoms, seek help, navigate healthcare and so on

Question 6

Identify the components of social connectedness.

Answer 6

• Who you connect with, When you connect, and Where you belong.

Question 7

What is a problem in the psychology and policy literature?

Answer 7

• loneliness

Question 8

Explain how to improve the quality of people’s relationships.

Answer 8

• by intervening early and helping children (and the adults who support their development) to become adults who are able to navigate relationships successfully.
• As we’ve seen, this can have huge returns, but it requires foresight and patience.
• Improving the quantity of people’s social contacts is more immediate, and can focus on adults, but we don’t have strong evidence (yet) about the benefits of that.

Question 9

What are the mechanisms through which social relationships may affect health?

Answer 9

• affect [e.g. arousal, motivation, valence, mood]
• identity [e.g. re: self-esteem, participation, stigma]
• cognition [e.g. re: risk, help-seeking, problem-solving]

Question 10

What are the factors that may promote or inhibit the development and maintenance of social relationships?

Answer 10

• traits / state-preferences [e.g. neurodiversity; introversion; telicity]
• prior experience and learning [e.g. emotional regulation; relational literacy, perspective taking, attachment style etc]
• opportunity and social capital
• identity and group membership
• context [interacting with all of the above]

Question 11

Where can we intervene?

Answer 11

• Early years services and schools
• Children and families – meet basic needs, scaffold supportive parenting, reduce exposure to trauma, intervene early in any social anxiety … and create conditions in which children thrive, healthy attachments develop, and people grow into adults who can manage their relationships and participate in social groups.
• Health and social care services and community organisations.
• Adults - psychological therapy (social anxiety, depression), peer support, social prescribing, social security, community resources and activities (e.g. walking groups, allotments, libraries, youth groups)