Diversity of Group Memberships Predicts Well-Being: Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Evidence.

Groups have their health and well-being impacted by satisfying their members' needs and providing resources to help cope with threats. Multiple group memberships serve to accumulate these benefits and also provide resilience to the effects of group loss. However, the additional well-being benefits of belonging to multiple remain to be determined.

Who helps and why? A longitudinal exploration of volunteer role identity, between-group closeness, and community identification as predictors of coordinated helping during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mutual aid groups have allowed community members to respond collectively to the COVID-19 pandemic, providing essential support to the vulnerable. While research has begun to explore the benefits of participating in these groups, there is a lack of work investigating who is likely to engage in this form of aid-giving, although early accounts suggest that existing volunteers have played a significant part in the mutual aid phenomena. Taking a social identity approach, the present study sought to identify what social psychological processes predict this continued engagement by exploring predictors of coordinated COVID-19 aid-giving for pre-existing volunteers.

Weathering the economic storm together: Family identification predicts future well-being during COVID-19 via enhanced financial resilience.

The economic crisis precipitated by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has placed considerable financial pressures on households across the world. These are compounded by the enforced isolation accompanying pandemic restrictions, during which individuals can struggle to access external assistance and often need to rely heavily on the social, emotional, and financial support of other family members. Previous research indicates that family financial stress has negative consequences for the mental health and well-being of members, but that heightened family identification can provide individuals with a stronger sense of collective financial resilience.

The mental health benefits of community helping during crisis: Coordinated helping, community identification and sense of unity during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Communities are vital sources of support during crisis, providing collective contexts for shared identity and solidarity that predict supportive, prosocial responses. The COVID-19 pandemic has presented a global health crisis capable of exerting a heavy toll on the mental health of community members while inducing unwelcome levels of social disconnection. Simultaneously, lockdown restrictions have forced vulnerable community members to depend upon the support of fellow residents.

Doing it for us: Community identification predicts willingness to receive a COVID-19 vaccination via perceived sense of duty to the community.

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented huge challenges for communities across the world. Vaccines offer the best hope for controlling its deleterious effects, but not everybody is willing to be vaccinated, so it is important to explore variables that might predict vaccination willingness. The present study addressed this by drawing upon the Social Identity Approach, which posits that people's membership of social groups is consequential for their thoughts and behaviour.

Thy will be done: Exploring the longitudinal rewards of religious group membership enactment during volunteering.

The volunteering literature is replete with studies revealing the health benefits of volunteering. This has led psychologists to question whether social processes may help deliver these benefits while also supporting sustained volunteering engagement. The Social Identity Approach (SIA) recognizes that volunteering takes place in groups and sheds light on these processes by providing insights into group dynamics.

Collectively coping with coronavirus: Local community identification predicts giving support and lockdown adherence during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The role of shared identity in predicting both ingroup helping behaviour and adherence to protective norms during COVID-19 has been extensively theorized, but remains largely under-investigated. We build upon previous Social Identity research into community resilience by testing the role of pre-existing local community (or 'neighbourhood') identity as a predictor of these outcomes, via the mediator of perceived social support. Community residents in the UK completed a longitudinal online survey four months before lockdown (T1; N = 253), one month before lockdown (T2; N = 217), and two months into lockdown (T3; N = 149).

Community identification, social support, and loneliness: The benefits of social identification for personal well-being.

Levels of loneliness across the world have reached epidemic proportions, and their impact upon population health is increasingly apparent. In response, policies and initiatives have attempted to reduce loneliness by targeting social isolation among residents of local communities. Yet, little is known about the social psychological processes underpinning the relationships between community belonging, loneliness, and well-being.

Healthcare provision inside immigration removal centres: A social identity analysis of trust, legitimacy and disengagement.

The stressors of immigration detention and negative host country experiences make effective access to health care vital for migrant detainees, but little is known regarding the health experiences of this populations and the barriers to healthcare access. The present research investigates immigration detainees' experiences of health-related help-seeking in the distressing and stigmatised environment of UK immigration removal centres (IRCs), as well as staff members' experiences of providing help. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 40 detainees and 21 staff and analysed using theoretical thematic analysis guided by the social identity approach.

Social Prescribing as 'Social Cure': A longitudinal study of the health benefits of social connectedness within a Social Prescribing pathway.

We examined whether the Social Cure (SC) perspective explains the efficacy of a Social Prescribing (SP) pathway which addresses healthcare needs through enhancing social connections. Data were collected at pathway entry from patients with long-term health conditions, or who felt isolated/lonely/anxious ( = 630), then again 4 months later ( = 178), and 6-9 months later ( = 63). Being on the pathway was associated with increased group memberships between T0 and T1.

The social cure of social prescribing: a mixed-methods study on the benefits of social connectedness on quality and effectiveness of care provision.

Objectives: This study aimed to assess the degree to which the 'social cure' model of psychosocial health captures the understandings and experiences of healthcare staff and patients in a social prescribing (SP) pathway and the degree to which these psychosocial processes predict the effect of the pathway on healthcare usage.

Design: Mixed-methods: Study 1: semistructured interviews; study 2: longitudinal survey.

Setting: An English SP pathway delivered between 2017 and 2019.

Longitudinal associations between family identification, loneliness, depression, and sleep quality.

Objectives: The prevalence of depression and loneliness is increasing in Western nations, and both have been shown to cause poor sleep quality, with evidence suggesting that loneliness also predicts depression. The Social Cure perspective can shed light on these relationships and thus informs the present study. Specifically, it was hypothesized that the extent of participants' identification with a significant social group, their family, would positively predict sleep quality and that this relationship would be mediated by loneliness and depression.

Evaluation and exploration of a social prescribing initiative: Study protocol.

Attention is being given to healthcare initiatives with the potential to save money and improve lives. One example is social prescribing, which supports patients whose ill-health is exacerbated by loneliness. While evidence has accumulated attesting to social prescribing's efficacy, one limitation has been the lack of a theoretical framework, which limits understanding of how tackling loneliness improves health.

Social Isolation Predicts Frequent Attendance in Primary Care.

Background: Frequent attenders in primary care have complex physical and mental healthcare needs as well as low satisfaction with their health care. Interventions targeting mental health or psychoeducation have not been effective in reducing attendance. Here, we test the proposition that both frequent attendance and poor health are partly explained by unmet social needs (i.

Greater University Identification-But not Greater Contact-Leads to More Life Satisfaction: Evidence from a Spanish Longitudinal Study.

Background: A growing body of literature has highlighted the relationship between group identification (a subjective sense of belonging to one's social group, coupled with a subjective sense of commonality with the group's members) and well-being. However, little of this work is longitudinal, and few studies address reciprocal causality or control for intensity of contact with fellow group members.

Method: We investigated the effect of university identification on satisfaction with life (SWL) over time (and vice versa) in 216 Spanish undergraduates, with seven months between T1 and T2.

On the reciprocal effects between multiple group identifications and mental health: A longitudinal study of Scottish adolescents.

Objectives: The aim of the study was to investigate the link between social group identification and mental health outcomes in a sample of secondary school pupils. Based on previous work, it was predicted that multiple high group identifications would protect against psychological ill health. Furthermore, it was predicted that better mental health would also predict greater number of group identifications, thus creating a 'virtuous circle'.

The Nation and the Family: The Impact of National Identification and Perceived Importance of Family Values on Homophobic Attitudes in Lithuania and Scotland.

The meanings attached to the nation can be consequential for group members' attitudes and beliefs. We examined how national identity definition can influence the extent of individuals' homophobia with 159 Lithuanian and 176 Scottish university students who completed a questionnaire which measured their national identification, homophobia, and the extent to which they felt traditional family values were central to their nation's identity. Consistent with nation-wide differences in the significance given to the family, Lithuanian participants perceived family values to be more important for their national identity and expressed higher levels of homophobia than did Scottish participants.

Post-traumatic growth enhances social identification in liver transplant patients: A longitudinal study.

Objective: The main aim of this paper is to investigate the prediction that greater subjective identification with relevant groups and social categories (i.e. 'family' and 'transplantees') can be an outcome of post-traumatic growth (PTG).

Greater number of group identifications is associated with healthier behaviour in adolescents.

We investigated the relationship between group identification (with the family, school, and friendship groups) and adolescent health behaviour (smoking, binge drinking, and cannabis use). 1,111 students from 4 Scottish secondary (high) schools completed a questionnaire which included measures of group identification, group contact, health behaviours, and demographic variables. We found that identification with the family and school groups predicted reduced odds of substance use, whereas identification with the friend group predicted increased odds of substance use.

Identification with social groups is associated with mental health in adolescents: Evidence from a Scottish community sample.

The promotion and maintenance of mental health is an increasingly important societal issue. Previous research has shown that identification with social groups is positively associated with adult mental wellbeing, with multiple group identifications being particularly beneficial. The aim of the current study was to investigate whether the same is true for adolescents.

Greater number of group identifications is associated with lower odds of being depressed: evidence from a Scottish community sample.

Purpose: Group identification has been shown to be associated with reduced risk of depression, but this research has important limitations. Our aim was to establish a robust link between group identification and depression whilst overcoming previous studies' shortcomings.

Methods: 1824 participants, recruited from General Practice throughout Scotland, completed a questionnaire measuring their identification with three groups (family, community, and a group of their choice), as well as their intensity of contact with each group.

The pain of low status: the relationship between subjective socio-economic status and analgesic prescriptions in a Scottish community sample.

There is a strong positive relationship between objective measures of socio-economic status (OSS) and general health. However, there is an increasing interest in the relationship between health and subjective socio-economic status (SSS), which describes one's perceived rank in relation to the rest of the society, based on factors such as income, occupation and education. While the relationship between SSS and general health is well established, the relationship between SSS and pain has received little attention.

Greater number of group identifications is associated with healthier behaviour: Evidence from a Scottish community sample.

Objectives: This paper investigates the interplay between group identification (i.e., the extent to which one has a sense of belonging to a social group, coupled with a sense of commonality with in-group members) and four types of health behaviour, namely physical exercise, smoking, drinking, and diet.