Title: Social Relationships and Health Improvement Programme
Funder: Medical Research Council

Abstract: Aims and objectives Social relationships (be they familial, intimate or sexual relationships, or based on broader friendships/social networks and communities) are fundamental to the development of our attitudes and behaviour from childhood and across the life course leading to advantages and also inequalities in health. The aim of the Social Relationships and Health Improvement programme is to examine the dynamic mechanisms by which social relationships and networks influence health and behaviours across the life course, and to translate these understandings into interventions to modify relationship influences, and improve population health. Our objectives are to: 1. Measure and explain the influence of social relationships on health behaviours and inequalities 2. Discover how to modify social relationship influences to improve population health and reduce inequalities 3. Develop and evaluate theory-driven, relationship-based interventions to improve population health and reduce inequalities Research plan and methodology We will use a range of qualitative and quantitative methods and disciplinary perspectives to generate new understandings on the influence of relationships on health and identify the crucial mechanisms that form the whole, or a part of, interventions. We will in turn develop and evaluate multilevel, translational interventions to improve health and reduce inequalities. We will seek to develop interventions that work across the four supra-individual levels of the socio-ecological framework (relationships, settings, neighbourhoods and policy); novel research made possible by the Unit’s integrated cross-programme working. The programme will include four inter-related themes on: families; peers and social networks; intimate and sexual relationships; and communities. The families theme will focus on the development and evaluation of early years interventions and address two core knowledge gaps: the role of maternal support; and the nature of fathers’ involvement with their children, and how such involvement might be optimised through parenting interventions. The peers and social networks theme will examine how social networks and the resources drawn from social support and connectedness influence health, behaviour and social norms. We will identify the social support mechanisms in interventions to initiate and maintain behaviour change and the potential of technology based interventions to facilitate this. The intimate and sexual relationships theme will explore the potential mechanisms of change within relationships that could improve a range of mental, physical, and primarily sexual, health outcomes. A crucial aspect will be in exploring how to counter negative power relations, gendered or otherwise, within relationships, with a particular focus on the perpetration of gender-based violence across the life course. The communities theme will focus on to affect change at the community level via a community participative approach. It will have a specific focus on identity-based (e.g. gay or professional) and online communities and will explore how to operationalise the concept of social cohesion, and its potential impact on social networks. We will work with our clinical, policy, and international partners to explore how to incorporate our findings into changes in policy, practice, and intervention development at the international level.


Research activity codes: 1.2 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SOCIOECONOMIC PROCESSES
Health categories: GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE