Fu Rong, Noguchi Harkuo, Tachikawa Hirokazu, Aiba Miyuki, Nakamine Shin, Kawamura Akira, Takahashi Hideto, Tamiya Nanako
University of Tsukuba, Department of Health Services Research, Faculty of Medicine, Japan.
Waseda University, School of Political Science and Economics, Japan.
Soc Sci Med. 2017 Feb;175:58-65. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2016.12.043. Epub 2016 Dec 29.
It is widely documented that psychological distress is negatively associated with social networks involvement. However, despite the theoretical postulations that social networks are crucial for alleviating psychological distress, no study has yet empirically confirmed the causality of this relationship. Thus, we used the random-effects generalized least squares method to investigate the effect of one- and two-year lagged values for involvement in social networks on psychological distress. Nine years of longitudinal data were extracted from a nationally representative survey in Japan ("The Longitudinal Survey of Middle-aged and Older Persons"). We utilized the Kessler 6 (K6) score to measure psychological distress among 15,242 respondents aged 50-59 years in the baseline year (2005), and stratified participants into three layers of social networks: inner (well-established friendship ties and participating in hobby activates), intermediary (neighborly ties), and outer (involvement in community activities). We found highly significant and negative associations between all three layers and K6 scores, with the strongest association being for the inner layer. We further observed that one-year lagged involvement in the inner and intermediary layers led to significantly lower K6 scores. However, the protective influences of social networks generally diminished over time. In addition, the protective influences of social network involvement on psychological distress were stronger for women than for men. Furthermore, involvement in social networks was especially important for improving mental health among people with psychological distress. These findings would be important for policymaking to prevent mental health deterioration among middle-aged adults in Japan.
有大量文献记载，心理困扰与社交网络参与度呈负相关。然而，尽管从理论上推测社交网络对于缓解心理困扰至关重要，但尚无研究通过实证证实这种关系的因果性。因此，我们采用随机效应广义最小二乘法，来研究社交网络参与度的一年和两年滞后值对心理困扰的影响。我们从日本一项具有全国代表性的调查（“中老年纵向调查”）中提取了九年的纵向数据。我们使用凯斯勒6项心理困扰量表（K6）来衡量2005年基线年中15242名年龄在50至59岁之间的受访者的心理困扰程度，并将参与者分为三层社交网络：内层（稳固的友谊关系且参与兴趣活动）、中层（邻里关系）和外层（参与社区活动）。我们发现所有这三层社交网络与K6得分之间均存在高度显著的负相关，其中与内层的关联最为强烈。我们进一步观察到，内层和中层社交网络参与度滞后一年会导致K6得分显著降低。然而，社交网络的保护作用通常会随着时间的推移而减弱。此外，社交网络参与度对心理困扰的保护作用对女性比对男性更强。此外，参与社交网络对于改善有心理困扰的人的心理健康尤为重要。这些发现对于日本预防中年成年人心理健康恶化的政策制定具有重要意义。
