School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia.
School of Psychology, University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom.
Soc Sci Med. 2013 Dec;98:179-86. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2013.09.013. Epub 2013 Sep 25.
A growing body of research suggests that a lack of social connectedness is strongly related to current depression and increases vulnerability to future depression. However, few studies speak to the potential benefits of fostering social connectedness among persons already depressed or to the protective properties of this for future depression trajectories. We suggest that this may be in part because connectedness tends to be understood in terms of (difficult to establish) ties to specific individuals rather than ties to social groups. The current study addresses these issues by using population data to demonstrate that the number of groups that a person belongs to is a strong predictor of subsequent depression (such that fewer groups predicts more depression), and that the unfolding benefits of social group memberships are stronger among individuals who are depressed than among those who are non-depressed. These analyses control for initial group memberships, initial depression, age, gender, socioeconomic status, subjective health status, relationship status and ethnicity, and were examined both proximally (across 2 years, N = 5055) and distally (across 4 years, N = 4087). Depressed respondents with no group memberships who joined one group reduced their risk of depression relapse by 24%; if they joined three groups their risk of relapse reduced by 63%. Together this evidence suggests that membership of social groups is both protective against developing depression and curative of existing depression. The implications of these results for public health and primary health interventions are discussed.
越来越多的研究表明，社交孤立与当前的抑郁密切相关，并增加了未来抑郁的易感性。然而，很少有研究探讨在已经抑郁的人群中培养社交联系的潜在益处，或这种联系对未来抑郁轨迹的保护作用。我们认为，这可能部分是因为联系往往被理解为与特定个体的（难以建立的）联系，而不是与社会团体的联系。本研究通过使用人口数据来解决这些问题，表明一个人所属的群体数量是随后抑郁的一个强有力的预测因素（即群体越少，抑郁程度越高），并且社会群体成员资格的展开益处在抑郁个体中比在非抑郁个体中更强。这些分析控制了初始群体成员资格、初始抑郁、年龄、性别、社会经济地位、主观健康状况、关系状况和种族，并分别在近期（2 年内，N=5055）和远期（4 年内，N=4087）进行了检查。没有群体成员资格的抑郁受访者如果加入一个群体，其抑郁复发的风险降低 24%；如果他们加入三个群体，其复发风险降低 63%。这些证据表明，社会群体的成员资格既可以预防抑郁的发生，也可以治疗现有的抑郁。讨论了这些结果对公共卫生和初级卫生干预的意义。
