Search PubMed⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search PubMed

Results for “Socialization”

Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 181 records · Page 10Linked to original sources

Social cohesion, social support, and health among Latinos in the United States.

The role of individual versus community level social connections in promoting health is an important factor to consider when addressing Latino health. This analysis examines the relationships between social support, social cohesion, and health in a sample of Latinos in the United States. Using data from the National Latino and Asian American Study, the analysis uses ordered logistic regression to explore the relationships of family support, friend support, family cultural conflict, and neighborhood social cohesion with self-rated physical and mental health, taking into account language proficiency and use, nativity, and sociodemographic variables. Family support, friend support, and neighborhood social cohesion were positively related to self-rated physical and mental health, and family cultural conflict was negatively related when controlled only for sex and age. After controlling for education, income, and other demographic measures, only family support was found to have a weak association with self-rated physical health; however, the relationship seemed to be mediated by language. In contrast, family support and family cultural conflict were strongly associated with self-rated mental health, after controlling for language, education, income, and other demographic measures. The study did not find neighborhood social cohesion to be significantly related to either self-rated physical or mental health, after accounting for the effects of the other social connection variables. Language of interview did not explain the highly significant effects of language proficiency and use. Social connections are important for health and mental health, but language and other sociodemographic factors seem to be related to how Latinos establish these social linkages. Further investigation into the role of language in the development and maintenance of social connections may help unravel the mechanisms by which they promote or decrease health.

Adolescent↗

Social support, social selection and self-assessed health status: results from the veterans health study in the United States.

This study provided a comprehensive assessment of the association between social support and health using longitudinal data from the Veterans Health Study. Unlike previous studies which examined the relationship between one single domain of social support with either mental or physical health, the present study assessed the effects of three different domains of social support on multiple measures of health. The findings of the study indicated that social support tended to mediate the deleterious effects of non-military traumatic events; whereas the adverse consequences of traumatic events experienced in the military were not affected by social support, suggesting that stressors associated with combat had a long lasting effect on the health status of veterans. The study results revealed that compared with those with better health, respondents with poor health were more likely to have lower levels of social support, suggesting that poor health might be a barrier to a person's ability to participate and/or maintain social relationships. The study also showed that different types of social support had varying beneficial effects on different measures of health. While perceived support had a strong effect on all the measures of health (except alcoholism) included in the study, living arrangement had a significant effect on post-traumatic stress disorder or physical health and participation in group activities had a strong effect only on physical functioning. The results of the study highlight the need for future research to determine whether particular types of social support affect various aspects of health differently. This simultaneous focus on multiple support functions and health outcomes is important because it provides insight into the mechanisms linking social support to health.

Adult↗

Cultural factors in social anxiety: a comparison of social phobia symptoms and Taijin kyofusho.

The present study examined two forms of culturally-defined social anxiety: social anxiety or phobia, as defined by DSM-IV; (i.e., a concern of public scrutiny or embarrassment) and Taijin Kyofusho (TKS), a Japanese form of social anxiety centered around concern for offending others with inappropriate behavior or offensive appearance. These versions of social anxiety are also examined in relation to culturally-determined self definition as independent and interdependent. One hundred eighty-one U.S. students and 161 students enrolled in Japanese universities were administered scales to assess social anxiety and phobia and TKS symptoms and behaviors, as well as construal of self as independent or interdependent. Factor analyses of the three scales used to assess social anxiety yielded three factors, each clearly corresponding to the respective scales and defining TKS and DSM-defined social anxiety. A case analysis indicated that there was an approximate 50% co-occurrence between high scorers on the TKS and social phobia scales. Multiple regression analyses resulted in a different set of predictors of TKS and SPS for the U.S. and Japanese respondents. Results were interpreted as suggesting that cultural variables can mediate the expression of social anxiety but that both forms of social anxiety can be found in each sample.

Adolescent↗

The relationship of social environment, social networks, and health outcomes in the Seattle Longitudinal Study: two analytical approaches.

This study examined the relation of social networks and perceived social environment to health outcomes and cost utilization over a 1-year period in a community sample of 387 (173 males, 214 females). Two analytical strategies, a variable-oriented approach and a subject-oriented approach, were used to complement each other: structural equation modeling assessed the direct relationship between social relationships and health, while cluster analysis examined how social relationship patterns were related to health outcomes. Lower levels of perceived social environment were associated with an increased number of hospital visits. For unmarried individuals, increased age was associated with greater medical usage and estimated total health care cost, while low perceived social environment was related to a greater number of doctor visits. Among married individuals, women had more frequent doctor visits, medication usage, estimated outpatient costs, and primary care visits. Married individuals with low levels of social networks had increased total health care costs, outpatient costs, and primary care visits. Cluster analysis was used to group individuals by characteristics of perceived social environment and social networks. Members of the cluster groups with greater health problems were more likely to be isolated, had the least social contact, and had lower levels of education and income. Including subject-oriented approaches is useful in complementing more popular regression methods for data analysis.

Adult↗

Cooperatives as a social enterprise in Italy: a place for social integration and rehabilitation.

This article analyses the history and development of an integrated cooperative established in 1981 in northern Italy. Integrated cooperatives, otherwise known as social enterprises, are among the most interesting activities developed in the area of social assistance and rehabilitation in recent years in Italy. In particular, they acquired relevance in the care of mentally disordered people by providing them with job opportunities, which is an important rehabilitative and integrative factor. The aim of social enterprises is two-fold. They have the economic goal of offering remunerative work just as any other commercial enterprise, as well as the social mandate of promoting the physical, social, and mental health of their members. A positive coexistence between market competition and rehabilitation is therefore constantly pursued. This research aimed at analysing the working and social experience of people employed by the cooperative during its 10-year life. The study was limited to those who had a social or health problem when entering the cooperative. The investigation was promoted by cooperative members, who felt the need to document their experience and to undertake initiatives towards evaluating the rehabilitative value of the social enterprise. The results show that cooperative members come from different marginalized areas of social and health distress, of which the two largest are social service users and psychiatric service users. There is a noticeable turn-over rate, which underlines one function of the cooperative as being a transitional working context from which users can gain access to other more rewarding job opportunities in the labour market.

Adult↗

How the brain processes social information: searching for the social brain.

Because information about gender, kin, and social status are essential for reproduction and survival, it seems likely that specialized neural mechanisms have evolved to process social information. This review describes recent studies of four aspects of social information processing: (a) perception of social signals via the vomeronasal system, (b) formation of social memory via long-term filial imprinting and short-term recognition, (c) motivation for parental behavior and pair bonding, and (d) the neural consequences of social experience. Results from these studies and some recent functional imaging studies in human subjects begin to define the circuitry of a "social brain." Such neurodevelopmental disorders as autism and schizophrenia are characterized by abnormal social cognition and corresponding deficits in social behavior; thus social neuroscience offers an important opportunity for translational research with an impact on public health.

Animals↗

The social support. Social dissupport continuum.

A person's network embodies "the good, the bad, and the ugly" of all social relationships. The nature of these relationships may be conceptualized as a continuum between social support and social dissupport. Social support, as a product of relationships that facilitate growth, generates self-esteem and assists in assuming appropriate societal roles. Social dissupport represents those relationships that hinder growth and/or promote disintegration. Clinically, nurses either formally or informally assess the degree of social support, but neglect the overall social support/dissupport ratio. The MSNI profiles the person's perception of social support/dissupport on four levels of social relationships and is an efficient instrument in assessing who is in the social network, what is provided, perceived helpfulness, and expectations. Preliminary use of the instrument with parents of the long-term mentally ill, acutely and long-term mentally ill clients, students, and a variety of clients of graduate students enrolled in a crisis intervention course are promising. Thus, nurses must be prepared to confront their clients' perceptions of the professional's role and to modify and adapt those interactions to facilitate goal achievement.

Humans↗

Social networks and social support of primigravida mothers and fathers.

Most researchers have examined the effects of stress and social support on pregnancy outcomes without identifying the relationship between social support and social network factors. While the type and amount of support have been shown to be related to pregnancy outcomes, the sources of that support and the influence of network structure on a person's supportive resources have not been defined. Network factors, in fact, may predict perceived support or may explain more of the variance in pregnancy outcomes than social support does alone. The objectives of this study were to describe the social networks of primigravida women and their husbands; to determine if there are any differences in social networks based on gender, education, or income; and to examine the relationships among network characteristics, demographic characteristics, and perceived availability of support from network members. The 54 couples who composed the sample for this study were recruited through local physicians who provided the names of all clients who were primigravidas, living with the father of the child, and residing within 25 miles of Ann Arbor, Michigan. During the third trimester of pregnancy, couples were interviewed in their homes, and each parent completed a Social Network Inventory (SNI). The SNI obtained information about the size of the network, role relationships, frequency of contact, percent of uniplex relationships, and degree of overlap with spouse's social network. In addition, parents were provided with definitions of each of House's (1981) four types of social support and asked to indicate which forms of support they received from each network member. Both individual variables (age and educational level) and network structure variables (size, percent kin, percent females, frequency, and density) were significantly associated with the amount of perceived social support. For each type of support, the independent variables associated with support were different for men and women.

Adult↗

Social influences on young adults' alcohol consumption: norms, modeling, pressure, socializing, and conformity.

This study aims to assess which types of social influence are correlated with young people's (15-24 years) heavy drinking (six or more glasses) in public drinking places during the weekend. Drinking in public drinking places can be defined as a "timeout" situation. Therefore we assumed that situational factors (e.g., importance of socializing and direct pressures on drinking) would contribute more to the explained variance than variables indicating cognitive social influences (e.g., social norms and modeling). Stepwise regression analyses showed that in total 25% of the variance was explained by social norms of family and peers (15%), importance of socializing in drinking situations (7%), modeling (2%) and group size (1%). The results show that both a cognitive factor and a situational factor appear to be most strongly correlated with young people's frequency of heavy drinking in public drinking places. Within the category of situational influences those variables indicating direct social pressures were only weakly related or not significant. Studies focusing on measuring the impact of social influences may profit from including the concept of the importance of socializing and conformity as an additional factor.

Adolescent↗

Social capital and social exclusion in England and Wales (1972-1999).

Recent research on social capital has explored trends in membership in voluntary organizations. However, there is currently little robust evidence on such trends in the UK since the 1970s, nor is there any analysis of whether participation bridges social divisions or accentuates them. This paper explores trends in participation in England and Wales since 1972 using data from the Social Mobility Inquiry of 1972 and the British Household Panel Survey of 1992 and 1999. We are concerned with social exclusion mechanisms in social capital generation in Britain over the three decades. Using binomial and multinomial models to 'unpack' the effects of socio-cultural factors on civic participation and on different types of associational membership, we test the thesis of across-the-board decline in social capital by Putnam (2000) and that of rising levels of middle-class social capital versus consistent low levels of working-class social capital by Hall (1999). The results show significant socio-cultural-gender differences, a relative stability of middle-class participation, and a rapid decline in the working-class access to social capital. We challenge the established accounts of both theses.

England↗

Affiliation moderates the effects of social threat on stress-related cardiovascular responses: boundary conditions for a laboratory model of social support.

The authors tested the hypothesis that the response-attenuating effects of affiliation under stress are limited to conditions that involve high social threat. Ninety-six young adult women were exposed to standardized psychological challenges in one of four conditions that involved two levels of social affiliation (alone or accompanied by a close friend) and two levels of social threat (variations in the social behavior and perceived status of the experimenter). Social affiliation was associated with attenuated blood pressure responses to the challenges but only under conditions of high social threat. Affiliation was not associated with differences in self-reported emotional response to the challenges nor with alterations in cognitive task appraisal. Exploratory analyses suggested that some of these effects were stronger in hostile or socially avoidant individuals. Implications of these findings for interpreting the literature on social support and cardiovascular reactivity, and for understanding the potential role of social support in reducing stress-related disease pathogenesis, are discussed.

Adolescent↗

Maternal and littermate deprivation disrupts maternal behavior and social-learning of food preference in adulthood: tactile stimulation, nest odor, and social rearing prevent these effects.

Maternal and littermate (social) separation, through artificial rearing (AR), disrupts the development of subsequent maternal behavior and social learning in rats. The addition of maternal-licking-like stimulation during AR, partially reverses some of these effects. However, little is know about the role of social stimuli from littermates and nest odors during the preweaning period, in the development of the adult maternal behavior and social learning. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of peer- and peer-and-odor rearing on the development of maternal behavior and social learning in rats. Female pups were reared with mothers (mother reared-MR) or without mothers (AR) from postnatal day (PND) 3. AR rats received three different treatments: (1) AR-CONTROL group received minimal tactile stimulation, (2) AR-ODOR females received exposure to maternal nest material inside the AR-isolation-cup environment, (3) AR-SOCIAL group was reared in the cup with maternal nest material and a conspecific of the same-age and same-sex and received additional tactile stimulation. MR females were reared by their mothers in the nest and with conspecifics. In adulthood, rats were tested for maternal behavior towards their own pups and in a social learning task. Results confirm our previous report that AR impairs performance of maternal behavior and the development of a social food preference. Furthermore, social cues from a littermate, in combination with tactile stimulation and the nest odor, reversed the negative effects of complete isolation (AR-CONTROL) on some of the above behaviors. Exposure to the odor alone also had effects on some of these olfactory-mediated behaviors. These studies indicate that social stimulation from littermates during the preweaning period, in combination with odor from the nest and tactile stimulation, contributes to the development of affiliative behaviors.

Age Factors↗

Depression and maltreatment as predictors of social competence and social problem-solving skills in school-age children.

Childhood depression and child maltreatment have been shown to be important predictors of childhood adjustment problems, including difficulties in the spheres of home, school, and peer relationships. In this study, depression and maltreatment were used to predict social competence and social problem-solving skills, as rated by self, parent, and teacher. The total sample contained 68 children (35 girls, 33 boys), most of whom were at high-risk either due to poverty, physical abuse and neglect (as determined by substantiated Protective Services reports), or exposure to negative life events. Hierarchical multivariate regression analyses were used to identify the contribution of depression and maltreatment to social competence and social problem-solving skills. Depression predicted parents' and teachers' ratings of social competence and parents' ratings of peer rejection. Additionally, depression predicted children's ratings of social competence and both measures of social problem-solving skills. Maltreatment predicted parents' and teachers' ratings of social competence. Gender predicted teachers' ratings of peer rejection and social competence. An additive effect of depression and maltreatment was found such that children who are depressed and maltreated have the lowest social competence as rated by parents and teachers. These children are, therefore, doubly at risk for problems in future relationships.

Child↗

Social network structure and social support in HIV-positive inner city mothers.

It has been documented that social support influences health outcomes of persons with chronic illnesses. The incidence of HIV and AIDS among minority women is growing at an alarming rate, but little is known about social support in this vulnerable population, and even less is known about the social network conveying that support. Guided by the convoy of social networks model, this study describes the social networks in a sample of HIV-positive, urban-dwelling mothers (N = 147) by stage of disease (i.e., asymptomatic, symptomatic, AIDS) and examines relationships between social network structure and social support. Hierarchical linear modeling showed that women's social networks were disproportionately populated by children, and network members of women with AIDS were significantly older than network members of HIV-positive women with or without symptoms. Profile analyses showed that women's perceptions of the quality of social support differed according to the proportion of family members populating different segments of the social network.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

Social anxiety, depressive symptoms, and post-event rumination: affective consequences and social contextual influences.

Using a self-presentation perspective, we hypothesized that during social interactions in which social attractiveness could be easily appraised by others, more socially anxious individuals would be more prone to ruminate and rumination would have more adverse emotional consequences. After assessing social anxiety and depressive symptoms, unacquainted college students participated in 45-min structured social interactions manipulated to induce personal self-disclosure or mimic superficial, small-talk. Affective experiences were assessed immediately after and 24h after social interactions. Results found that social anxiety was associated with negative post-event rumination more strongly among those with elevated depressive symptoms. Further, at higher levels of social anxiety, post-event rumination was associated with increases in NA following personal disclosure interactions and decreases in NA following small-talk interactions. Individuals with more depressive symptoms experienced increases in NA following small-talk interactions, but not personal disclosure interactions. Contrary to expectation, positive relations between social anxiety and rumination were not mediated by self-presentation concerns during interactions. Fitting with relevant theory, findings implicated symptom and social contextual variables that moderate the affective consequences of rumination.

Adult↗

Social stress-induced cortisol elevation acutely impairs social memory in humans.

Although stress is known to affect the memory process, little has been elucidated regarding its effect on social memory. In this study, 30 subjects' social memory (face-name association memory) performance was tested. Twenty subjects were exposed to social stress with a subsequent test of social memory, while the remaining ten subjects served as controls. Free cortisol was determined via saliva samples taken before and after the social stress exposure. Because stress hormones might have biphasic actions on neurons, we separated the subjects with cortisol elevations between high and low responders. The high responders had significantly impaired social memory. Furthermore, we observed a negative relation between social stress-induced cortisol elevation and social memory. These results indicate that social stress acutely impairs social memory.

Adult↗

Development and validation of measures of social phobia scrutiny fear and social interaction anxiety.

The development and validation of the Social Phobia Scale (SPS) and the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS) two companion measures for assessing social phobia fears is described. The SPS assesses fear of being scrutinised during routine activities (eating, drinking, writing, etc.), while the SIAS assesses fear of more general social interaction, the scales corresponding to the DSM-III-R descriptions of Social Phobia--Circumscribed and Generalised types, respectively. Both scales were shown to possess high levels of internal consistency and test-retest reliability. They discriminated between social phobia, agoraphobia and simple phobia samples, and between social phobia and normal samples. The scales correlated well with established measures of social anxiety, but were found to have low or non-significant (partial) correlations with established measures of depression, state and trait anxiety, locus of control, and social desirability. The scales were found to change with treatment and to remain stable in the face of no-treatment. It appears that these scales are valid, useful, and easily scored measures for clinical and research applications, and that they represent an improvement over existing measures of social phobia.

Adult↗

Behavioral and mesocorticolimbic dopamine responses to non aggressive social interactions depend on previous social experiences and on the opponent's sex.

In these experiments we evaluated the relationship between behavioral and brain dopamine (DA) responses to social interactions. Subjects were group housed male mice confronted with a non aggressive male or female conspecific following either repeated defeat (defeated) or repeated non aggressive experiences (social). Defeated mice showed more defensive/submissive reactions then mice of the social group regardless of the opponent sex. However, mice defeated by females showed reduced social exploration without significant differences in non social exploration whilst the opposite was true for mice defeated by male opponents. Non aggressive social interactions enhanced dopamine metabolism in the prefrontal cortex (pFC) of DEFEATED mice regardless of opponent sex. However, only mice defeated by females showed enhanced dopamine metabolism and release in the nucleus accumbens septi (NAS) and olfactory tubercle (OT) following interaction with the non aggressive opponent. Finally, correlation between central and behavioral responses evidenced that 3,4-dihydroxiphenilacetic acid levels in the pFC were positively correlated with defensive behaviors and negatively correlated with non social exploration in mice confronted with male opponents but not in those confronted with females. The latter, showed a significant positive correlation between 3-methoxytyramine (3-MT) levels in the OT and defensive responses and significant negative correlation between social investigation and 3-MT levels in the OT and in the NAS. These results indicate a strict relationship between mesocorticolimbic dopamine transmission and behavior responses to social cues. Moreover, they strongly support the view that mesocorticolimbic DA modulates social behavior by affecting perceptive processing.

3,4-Dihydroxyphenylacetic Acid↗