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Comparing social contact and group identification as predictors of mental health
Author(s) -
Sani Fabio,
Herrera Marina,
Wakefield Juliet R. H.,
Boroch Olga,
Gulyas Csilla
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
british journal of social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.855
H-Index - 98
eISSN - 2044-8309
pISSN - 0144-6665
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8309.2012.02101.x
Subject(s) - mental health , psychology , identification (biology) , social contact , social psychology , dimension (graph theory) , social integration , social identity theory , group identification , social group , clinical psychology , psychiatry , sociology , botany , mathematics , anthropology , pure mathematics , biology
Current research on social integration and mental health operationalizes social integration as frequency of interactions and participation in social activities (i.e., social contact). This neglects the subjective dimension of social integration, namely group identification. We present two studies comparing the effect exerted by social contact and group identification on mental health (e.g., depression, stress) across two different groups (family; army unit), demonstrating that group identification predicts mental health better than social contact.