The health promoting effects of social flourishing in young adults: A broad view on the relevance of social relationships

Abstract

Social relationships are important to physical and mental health, but research is largely limited to examining a unitary social relationship construct as related to a few health outcomes. We analyzed data from a survey conducted in a large sample of college students (N=40,250) from 54 universities across the United States. We compared three constructs of social relationships as measured by the Social Flourishing Scale (1) supportive and rewarding nature of relationships; (2) perception of contributing to other’s happiness and wellbeing; and (3) feeling respected by others to twelve health outcomes. Findings indicate that better perceived social relationships in all three constructs was significantly associated with improved health outcomes for depression, anxiety, eating disorders, suicidality, cigarette use, non-prescription drug use, unhealthy weight, and insufficient sleep adjusted by sociodemographic, educational and social support covariates. However, positive perceived social relationships were significantly associated with binge drinking. Effect sizes indicated that ‘feeling respected by others’ was the most important construct of social relationships relevant to predicting health outcomes.