Braithwaite Scott, Holt-Lunstad Julianne
Brigham Young University, Department of Psychology, United States.
Brigham Young University, Department of Psychology, United States.
Curr Opin Psychol. 2017 Feb;13:120-125. doi: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2016.04.001. Epub 2016 Jun 20.
This paper reviews the research on relationships and mental health. Individuals who are more mentally healthy are more likely to select into relationships, but relationships are also demonstrably associated with mental health. The type of relationship matters - evidence suggests that more established, committed relationships, such as marriage, are associated with greater benefits than less committed unions such as cohabitation. The association between relationships and mental health is clearly bidirectional, however, stronger effects are observed when mental health is the outcome and relationships are the predictor, suggesting that the causal arrow flows more strongly from relationships to mental health than vice versa. Moreover, improving relationships improves mental health, but improving mental health does not reliably improve relationships. Our review of research corroborates the view that relationships are a keystone component of human functioning that have the potential to influence a broad array of mental health outcomes.
本文综述了关于人际关系与心理健康的研究。心理健康状况更佳的个体更有可能选择进入人际关系，但人际关系也明显与心理健康相关。人际关系的类型很重要——有证据表明，更稳定、更忠诚的关系，如婚姻，比同居等不太忠诚的结合带来的益处更大。人际关系与心理健康之间的关联显然是双向的，然而，当心理健康作为结果而人际关系作为预测因素时，会观察到更强的影响，这表明因果箭头从人际关系指向心理健康的力度比从心理健康指向人际关系的力度更强。此外，改善人际关系能增进心理健康，但改善心理健康并不一定能改善人际关系。我们对研究的综述证实了这样一种观点，即人际关系是人类机能的关键组成部分，有可能影响广泛的心理健康结果。
