Social Relationships and Health: A Flashpoint for Health Policy

By Debra J Umberson, J. K. Montez. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 2010

2,451 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Social relationships—both quantity and quality—affect mental health, health behavior, physical health, and mortality risk. Sociologists have played a central role in establishing the link between social relationships and health outcomes, identifying explanations for this link, and discovering social variation (e.g., by gender and race) at the population level. Studies show that social relationships have short- and long-term effects on health, for better and for worse, and that these effects emerge in childhood and cascade throughout life to foster cumulative advantage or disadvantage in health. This article describes key research themes in the study of social relationships and health, and it highlights policy implications suggested by this research.

Subfields: General Health Professions, Health

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/7fd2e96c0c7ad03719baa714a452bdec73f35b73

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In General Health Professions

In Health

Citations in the corpus

Associations between loneliness and perceived social support and outcomes of mental health problems: a systematic review (2018, background): “There is increasing interest in the effects of social relations on health, and in the service delivery and policy implications of such effects [1].”
AI-generated characters for supporting personalized learning and well-being (2021, background): “Reduced human social relationships adversely affect mental health, physical health and mortality risk 82 .”
The Ambiguous Link between Marriage and Health: A Dynamic Reanalysis of Loss and Gain Effects (2017, background): “A long-standing claim in the fields of family studies and medical sociology is the notion that marriage promotes adult health (Carr and Springer 2010; Simon 2014; Umberson and Montez 2010; Waite and Gallagher 2000).”
Psychometric Evaluation of the Interpersonal Support Evaluation List–Short Form in the ARIC Study Cohort (2012, background): “…receiving practical information, obtaining direct assistance, feeling accepted by others, and other stress-buffering aspects, which then appear to influence immune function, mood, coping, and health behaviors (Chesney & Antoni, 2002; Paykel, 2001; Umberson & Montez, 2010; Wills & Fegan, 2001).”
Burnout, Informal Social Support and Psychological Distress among Social Workers (2015, background): “Informal social support focuses on a level of intimacy constructed within the context of an interpersonal help system that shapes an ecological daily help process in which people usually play complementary and interrelated roles (Umberson and Montez, 2010).”
Shaping the Metaverse into Reality: A Holistic Multidisciplinary Understanding of Opportunities, Challenges, and Avenues for Future Investigation (2023, background): “85,86 Shopping by electronic channels can alleviate social exclusion, particularly for people with mobility disabilities, benefits that we expect to carry forward to meta-verse retailing.”
Culture Moderates the Relation Between Perceived Stress, Social Support, and Mental and Physical Health (2016, background): “Indeed, the more friends one has, the healthier and happier one is (e.g., J. Kim & Lee, 2011; Umberson & Montez, 2010).”
Family Relationships and Well-Being (2017, background): “A life course perspective has posited marital relationships as one of the most important relationships that define life context and in turn affect individuals’ well-being throughout adulthood (Umberson & Montez, 2010).”
Intergenerational Programs to Promote Active Aging: The Experiences and Perspectives of Older Adults (2016, background): “Social relationships are also linked to physical and mental health (Umberson & Montez, 2010).”