Number Of Social Interactions Research Articles

Smartphone-based mobility metrics capture daily social motivation and behavior in schizophrenia

Impaired social functioning contributes to reduced quality of life and is associated with poor physical and psychological well-being in schizophrenia, and thus is a key psychosocial treatment target. Low social motivation contributes to impaired social functioning, but is typically examined using self-report or clinical ratings, which are prone to recall biases and do not adequately capture the dynamic nature of social motivation in daily life. In the current study, we examined the utility of global positioning system (GPS)-based mobility data for capturing social motivation and behavior in people with schizophrenia. Thirty-one participants with schizophrenia engaged in a 60-day mobile intervention designed to increase social motivation and functioning. We examined associations between twice daily self-reports of social motivation and behavior (e.g., number of social interactions) collected via Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) and passively collected daily GPS mobility metrics (e.g., number of hours spent at home) in 26 of these participants. Findings suggested that greater mobility on a given day was associated with more EMA-reported social interactions on that day for four out of five examined mobility metrics: number of hours spent at home, number of locations visited, probability of being stationary, and likelihood of following one's typical routine. In addition, greater baseline social functioning was associated with less daily time spent at home and lower probability of following a daily routine during the intervention. GPS-based mobility thus corresponds with social behavior in daily life, suggesting that more social interactions may occur at times of greater mobility in people with schizophrenia, while subjective reports of social interest and motivation are less associated with mobility for this population.

General psychopathology and its social correlates in the daily lives of youth

BackgroundAdolescence is a period of both great social change, and of vulnerability to psychiatric distress. However, little is known about the associations between early psychopathology and social interactions at the fundamental level of daily life. To better understand the social correlates of subclinical psychopathology in adolescence, we assessed associations between general psychopathology and the quantity and quality of daily-life social interactions. MethodsDuring a six-day experience sampling period, adolescent and young adult participants in Study 1 (n = 663) and Study 2 (n = 1027) reported the quantity and quality of their everyday social interactions. General psychopathology was assessed using the Symptom Checklist-90 and Brief Symptom Inventory-53. The relationship between psychopathology and each outcome variable was tested in separate multilevel linear and logistic regression models. ResultsGeneral psychopathology was associated with social interaction quality. Associations between psychopathology and the number of social interactions were less apparent: In Study 1, participants with more psychopathology were not more alone, whereas Study 2 participants with higher levels of psychopathology were alone more. LimitationsLimitations include no separate investigation of distinct types of psychopathology, and relatively low compliance to the experience sampling in Study 2. ConclusionsConsistent associations between subclinical psychopathology and the quality of social interactions support the fundamentally social nature of early psychopathology. Moreover, negative experiences of social interactions may be more valuable markers of early psychopathology than a reduced quantity of social behaviors. Conceptualizations of daily-life social functioning, and prevention/intervention efforts would benefit from a greater consideration of the quality of everyday social experiences.

Social Box: Influence of a New Housing System on the Social Interactions of Stallions When Driven in Pairs.

Simple SummaryIn order to improve the housing conditions of stallions in individual boxes, we tested a so-called “social box” allowing increased physical contact between neighbouring horses. This study aimed at investigating whether housing stallions in social boxes potentially changes their behaviour during carriage driving. We hypothesised that the stay in social boxes would decrease the number of unwanted social interactions when driven in pairs. Eight Franches-Montagnes breeding stallions were observed when driven in pairs with a “neutral” stallion housed in a so-called “conventional box”, strongly limiting physical contact. They were driven on a standardised route over the course of four days before, during, and after being housed in a social box. The behaviours of the pairs and the interventions of the groom and the driver during the test drives were assessed live and using video recordings. The results showed that the stallions performed more social interactions during the driving test before being housed in social boxes and that these interactions decreased over the four days. This suggests that being housed in social boxes decreased the social behaviour of stallions while driven in pairs. Another important factor in reducing unwanted social interactions of stallions during carriage driving appears to be the consistency of the driver and the groom in their demands to teach the stallions that social interactions are unwanted while being driven in pairs. Other effects, such as habituation to the test conditions and the pairing, could not be assessed here and represent a limitation of our study.In order to improve the housing conditions of stallions in individual boxes, we tested a so-called “social box” allowing increased physical contact between neighbouring horses. This study investigated whether housing stallions in social boxes changes the number of social interactions during carriage driving. We hypothesised that the stay in social boxes would decrease the number of unwanted social interactions between stallions when driven in pairs. Eight Franches-Montagnes breeding stallions were observed when driven in pairs with a “neutral” stallion housed in a so-called “conventional box”, strongly limiting physical contact. They were driven on a standardised route over the course of four days before, during, and after being housed in social boxes. The type and frequency of behaviours of the pairs and the interventions of the groom and the driver during the test drives were assessed live and using video recordings. Results from linear mixed-effect models show that unwanted social interactions decreased during and after the stallions were housed in the social box (p < 0.001). Stallions’ interactions also decreased over the four days (p < 0.01), suggesting a habituation to the test conditions by learning not to interact, or by subtly settling dominance. The social box tended to decrease unwanted social behaviours of stallions driven in pairs and could therefore be used as an environmental enrichment for horses.

Including the majority: Examining the local social interactions of renters in four case study condominiums in Sydney

ABSTRACT Although an ever-increasing number of social interactions are taking place virtually, people’s relationships with their neighbors remain important. Apartment residents make up a growing proportion of the population in cities worldwide, but there is evidence that many find it challenging to form and maintain local social connections, especially those renting their home. This can negatively impact physical and mental health, and have implications for the management of apartment complexes and local area social sustainability. In this paper, we draw on interviews (n = 41) with renters of four large case study condominium complexes in Sydney, Australia, to investigate their local social interactions. The findings reveal that while many renters desire greater local connection, their opportunities and motivations are limited by factors relating to mobility, tenure security, prejudice, and exclusion from building-related governance. The paper concludes by considering the scope for interventions in design, management and governance to enhance opportunities for social connection.

Phenotypic Assortment Changes the Landscape of Selection.

Social interactions with conspecifics can dramatically affect an individual's fitness. The positive or negative consequences of interacting with social partners typically depend on the value of traits that they express. These pathways of social selection connect the traits and genes expressed in some individuals to the fitness realized by others, thereby altering the total phenotypic selection on and evolutionary response of traits across the multivariate phenotype. The downstream effects of social selection are mediated by the patterns of phenotypic assortment between focal individuals and their social partners (the interactant covariance, Cij', or the multivariate form, CI). Depending on the sign and magnitude of the interactant covariance, the direction of social selection can be reinforced, reversed, or erased. We report estimates of Cij' from a variety of studies of forked fungus beetles to address the largely unexplored questions of consistency and plasticity of phenotypic assortment in natural populations. We found that phenotypic assortment of male beetles based on body size or horn length was highly variable among subpopulations, but that those differences also were broadly consistent from year to year. At the same time, the strength and direction of Cij' changed quickly in response to experimental changes in resource distribution and social properties of populations. Generally, interactant covariances were more negative in contexts in which the number of social interactions was greater in both field and experimental situations. These results suggest that patterns of phenotypic assortment could be important contributors to variability in multilevel selection through their mediation of social selection gradients.

Daily social interactions and well-being in older adults: The role of interaction modality

Associations between social relationships and well-being are widely documented across the lifespan, including in older age. Older adults increasingly use digital communication technologies. In the present study, we examine the role of social interactions for older adults’ daily well-being with a focus on three interaction modalities (face-to-face, telephone, and digital). Specifically, we examine (a) whether people who are more socially active than others report higher levels of well-being and (b) how day-to-day fluctuations in the number of social interactions are associated with day-to-day fluctuations of well-being, separately by interaction modality. We use data from 115 participants (age: M = 72 years, SD = 5, range = 65–94; 40% women), who documented their social interactions over 21 days and reported their well-being each evening (including positive affect, negative affect, and loneliness). Taken together, our findings show that frequency of face-to-face interactions is more consistently related to well-being than telephone or digital interactions. At the between-person level, those who report more face-to-face social interactions than others across 21 days report higher levels of positive affect than others. At the within-person level, on days where participants report more face-to-face social interactions than their own average, they report higher positive affect, lower negative affect, and lower loneliness than usual. In addition, a higher number of digital interactions is associated with lower negative affect at the between-person level. In summary, our findings suggest that face-to-face social interactions are uniquely relevant to older adults’ daily well-being. We discuss implications of these findings for future research.

Siblings matter: Family heterogeneity improves associative learning later in life

AbstractDespite the strong interest in connecting social complexity and cognitive ability, there remains considerable debate about how to best quantify both cognitive performance and social complexity. Measuring group and brain size are clearly not sufficient and recent attention has been placed on the use of rigorous, increasingly challenging cognitive tasks and studying the quality, not merely the number of social interactions. Here we used two cichlid fishes from Lake Tanganyika, one cooperative breeder and one biparental species, in a cross‐fostering experiment, to investigate the links between social complexity and cognition. While controlling for parental cues, individual fish grew up either in a socially homogenous group with only conspecifics or in a mixed and diverse social group with hetero‐ as well as conspecifics and then were tested for learning abilities as subadults. To quantify differences in learning, we first employed a discrimination learning task followed by a reversal learning task that requires behavioral flexibility, as previous associations are forgotten and new associations forged. We found that individuals growing up in a more diverse social environment learned faster and made fewer mistakes in the discrimination learning task, but this ability did not transfer to the reversal learning task. Irrespective of the early social experiences, the cooperatively breeding, and thus the more social of the two cichlid species, learnt the color discrimination more quickly and made significantly fewer errors. These results provide a first demonstration of a possible association between cognitive performance and social complexity in cichlid fishes.

Adolescents' health literacy, health protective measures, and health-related quality of life during the Covid-19 pandemic.

PurposeFirst, to describe adolescents’ health information sources and knowledge, health literacy (HL), health protective measures, and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) during the initial phase of the Covid-19 pandemic in Norway. Second, to investigate the association between HL and the knowledge and behavior relevant for preventing spread of the virus. Third, to explore variables associated with HRQoL in a pandemic environment.MethodsThis cross-sectional study includes survey data from 2,205 Norwegian adolescents 16–19 years of age. The participants reported on their health information sources, HL, handwashing knowledge and behavior, number of social interactions, and HRQoL. Associations between study variables and specified outcomes were explored using multiple linear and logistic regression analyses.ResultsTelevision (TV) and family were indicated to be the main sources for pandemic-related health information. Handwashing, physical distancing, and limiting the number of social contacts were the most frequently reported measures. HL and handwashing knowledge and HL and handwashing behavior were significantly associated. For each unit increase on the HL scale, the participants were 5% more likely to socialize less with friends in comparison to normal. The mean HRQoL was very poor compared to European norms. Being quarantined or isolated and having confirmed or suspected Covid-19 were significantly negatively associated with HRQoL, but seeing less friends than normal was not associated. HL was significantly positively associated with HRQoL, albeit of minor clinical importance.ConclusionAdolescents follow the health authorities’ guidelines and appear highly literate. However, high fidelity requires great sacrifice because the required measures seem to collide with certain aspects that are important for the adolescents’ HRQoL.

Two-level modeling of quarantine.

Continuum models of epidemics do not take into account the underlying microscopic network structure of social connections. This drawback becomes extreme during quarantine when most people dramatically decrease their number of social interactions, while others (like cashiers in grocery stores) continue maintaining hundreds of contacts per day. We formulate a two-level model of quarantine. On a microscopic level, we model a single neighborhood assuming a star-network structure. On a mesoscopic level, the neighborhoods are placed on a two-dimensional lattice with nearest-neighbors interactions. The modeling results are compared with the COVID-19 data for several counties in Michigan (USA) and the phase diagram of parameters is identified.

Connecting Everyday Talk and Time Alone to Global Well-Being

Abstract Theoretical explanations for associations between characteristics of social interactions and global well-being (e.g., life satisfaction, loneliness) require further development and empirical grounding. We used the Communicate Bond Belong theory to develop six hypotheses linking the frequency, type, relatedness-to-energy ratio, and volition/choice of everyday social interactions with global well-being. Hypotheses were tested using two experience sampling studies and one 28-day diary study (TotalN = 389; Totalobservations = 10,368). Results suggest that number of social interactions is associated with global well-being, and that the portion of interactions with close partners is associated with lower loneliness. Experiencing unsatiated social needs when alone was negatively associated with global well-being and greater interaction choice was positively associated with global well-being. This study contributes to the ongoing discussion about how the pattern and nature of daily sociability are reflective of human thriving.

MATTERS OF THE HEART: DAILY SOCIAL INTERACTIONS AND CARDIOVASCULAR REACTIVITY IN MIDDLE AND OLD AGE

Social ties are essential for survival but the mechanisms accounting for this link are unclear. This study examined links between daily interpersonal experiences and cardiovascular reactivity. A total of 34 participants (aged 40 to 80) completed ecological momentary assessment surveys every three hours for 4 days and wore a device that assessed heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV). Multilevel models revealed that a greater number of social interactions and negative social interactions predicted increased HR. Links between social interactions and cardiovascular reactivity varied by gender and race. A greater number of interactions and negative interactions predicted increased HRV among men and not women. A greater number of social interactions predicted increased HR among Black individuals and White women but not White men. Thus, social interactions appear to get under the skin via the cardiovascular system but in unique ways that vary by gender and race.

Transdermal monitors to assess alcohol consumption in real-time and real-life – a qualitative study on user-experience

Introduction: Transdermal alcohol monitors, such as Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitors (SCRAMs), enable continuous measurement of alcohol consumption in participants’ natural environments free from recall bias and response burden. This paper explores young research participants’ experience of wearing SCRAMs to provide insights into the potential of the devices to be used for research on a larger scale.Method: In south-east Australia, participants were recruited among festival attendees (n = 12) and college students (n = 18). Participants wore the SCRAMs over 3–4 days, and upon returning the devices participated in a semi-structured qualitative interview about their experiences of the devices.Results: Most participants reported becoming unaware of the device after initial adjustment and did not believe their drinking patterns had been altered by wearing the SCRAM. Perceived similarities with correctional monitoring equipment led to a number of social interactions with onlookers, but participants generally felt at ease with this. Common issues reported by participants related to the physical discomfort and restrictions caused by the devices, citing problems with sleeping, exercising, and irritation with the clamping mechanism as impediments.Conclusions: Although SCRAMs have not been designed with research purposes in mind, this study highlights their utility in measuring alcohol consumption in real-life and real-time. Most participants suggested that their drinking patterns were unaffected and that any physical discomfort was manageable; however, comfort is a critical consideration in terms of improving the user experience. Adequately controlled validation studies are needed to determine if and how wearing SCRAMs affects retention, behaviour and drinking patterns.

Social interactions in a virtual learning environment:

This article deals with different strategies for group development in a virtual learning environment (VLE). For this purpose, we sought to investigate the organization and social interactions of students, during group dynamics that occurred in a distance education course. The methodology used in the research was qualitative and quantitative, with descriptive approach, classified as a case study. For data collection, we used the VLE ROODA communication tools (Forum, Contacts and Social Map), the environmental sociometry tool (Social Map), as well as participant observation and questionnaires. Thus, we analyzed the application of three group-formation strategies: random, chosen by the teacher and free choice. Interaction data categorization occurred within the virtual learning environment and was accomplished through the group development stages suggested by McClure. This study allowed us to determine that all three strategies are efficient for distance education, as long as the right time in class for the application of the strategy by the teacher is observed. This study aimed to elucidate the importance of using group work in distance education, especially for integrating students and enabling a greater number of social interactions in the virtual environment. Thus, the results confirm that the use of formation strategies can be effective for Distance Education, since the development of collective activities depends on cohesion and the mediation of conflicts between members of the group.

Evidence for a conserved quantity in human mobility.

Recent seminal works on human mobility have shown that individuals constantly exploit a small set of repeatedly visited locations1-3. A concurrent study has emphasized the explorative nature of human behaviour, showing that the number of visited places grows steadily over time4-7. How to reconcile these seemingly contradicting facts remains an open question. Here, we analyse high-resolution multi-year traces of ~40,000 individuals from 4 datasets and show that this tension vanishes when the long-term evolution of mobility patterns is considered. We reveal that mobility patterns evolve significantly yet smoothly, and that the number of familiar locations an individual visits at any point is a conserved quantity with a typical size of ~25. We use this finding to improve state-of-the-art modelling of human mobility4,8. Furthermore, shifting the attention from aggregated quantities to individual behaviour, we show that the size of an individual's set of preferred locations correlates with their number of social interactions. This result suggests a connection between the conserved quantity we identify, which as we show cannot be understood purely on the basis of time constraints, and the 'Dunbar number'9,10 describing a cognitive upper limit to an individual's number of social relations. We anticipate that our work will spark further research linking the study of human mobility and the cognitive and behavioural sciences.

Temporal Associations Between Social Activity and Mood, Fatigue, and Pain in Older Adults With HIV: An Ecological Momentary Assessment Study.

BackgroundSocial isolation is associated with an increased risk for mental and physical health problems, especially among older persons living with HIV (PLWH). Thus, there is a need to better understand real-time temporal associations between social activity and mood- and health-related factors in this population to inform possible future interventions.ObjectiveThis study aims to examine real-time relationships between social activity and mood, fatigue, and pain in a sample of older PLWH.MethodsA total of 20 older PLWH, recruited from the University of California, San Diego HIV Neurobehavioral Research Program in 2016, completed smartphone-based ecological momentary assessment (EMA) surveys 5 times per day for 1 week. Participants reported their current social activity (alone vs not alone and number of social interactions) and levels of mood (sadness, happiness, and stress), fatigue, and pain. Mixed-effects regression models were used to analyze concurrent and lagged associations among social activity, mood, fatigue, and pain.ResultsParticipants (mean age 58.8, SD 4.3 years) reported being alone 63% of the time, on average, (SD 31.5%) during waking hours. Being alone was related to lower concurrent happiness (beta=−.300; 95% CI −.525 to −.079; P=.008). In lagged analyses, social activity predicted higher levels of fatigue later in the day (beta=−1.089; 95% CI −1.780 to −0.396; P=.002), and higher pain levels predicted being alone in the morning with a reduced likelihood of being alone as the day progressed (odds ratio 0.945, 95% CI 0.901-0.992; P=.02).ConclusionsThe use of EMA elucidated a high rate of time spent alone among older PLWH. Promoting social activity despite the presence of pain or fatigue may improve happiness and psychological well-being in this population.

Investigating heterogeneity in social influence by social distance in car-sharing decisions under uncertainty: A regret-minimizing hybrid choice model framework based on sequential stated adaptation experiments

The present study is designed to investigate social influence in car-sharing decisions under uncertainty. Social influence indicates that individuals’ decisions are influenced by the choices made by members of their social networks. An individual may experience different degrees of influence depending on social distance, i.e. the strength of the social relationship between individuals. Such heterogeneity in social influence has been largely ignored in the previous travel behavior research. The data used in this study stems from an egocentric social network survey, which measures the strength of the social relationships of each respondent. In addition, a sequential stated adaptation experiment was developed to capture more explicitly the effect of social network choices on the individual decision-making process. Social distance is regarded as a random latent variable. The estimated social distance and social network choices are incorporated into a social influence variable, which is treated as an explanatory variable in the car-sharing decision model. To simultaneously estimate latent social distance and the effects of social influence on the car-sharing decision, we expand the hybrid choice framework to incorporate the latent social distance model into discrete choice analysis. The estimation results show substantial social influence in car-sharing decisions. The magnitude of social influence varies according to the type of relationship, similarity of socio-demographics and the number of social interactions.

Influence of Paddock Size on Social Relationships in Domestic Horses

ABSTRACTThe aim of this study was to explore whether the size of paddocks affected social interactions within a group of horses. Furthermore, the effects of the gender composition in groups on social behavior were investigated. The research was done in a horse-riding center. A total of 78 horses and ponies, forming 3 groups, were included in the study. The time of the observation was divided into 2 periods. The data obtained from the 1st period (the horses were on relatively small paddocks) and the 2nd period (the paddocks were significantly bigger) were compared. The findings uniformly indicated that an enlargement of grass paddocks resulted in a significant decline in the number of social interactions, both agonistic and play types, in all studied herds. A likely principal reason for a change in the number of social interactions seems to be feeding management and how it changed between seasons, rather than paddock size. No effect of group composition on social interaction was found in terms of aggressive interaction, and only 1 group differed regarding friendly interaction.

Decreasing GABA function within the medial prefrontal cortex or basolateral amygdala decreases sociability

IntroductionDecreased sociability is a symptom of psychiatric conditions including autism-spectrum disorder and schizophrenia. Both of these conditions are associated with decreases in GABA function, particularly in the medial prefrontal cortex (PFC) and the basolateral amygdala (BLA); structures that are components of the social brain. Here, we determined if decreasing GABA transmission within either the PFC or the BLA decreases social behavior. MethodsRats were implanted with cannulae aimed at either the medial PFC or the BLA and then were tested on up to 4 behavioral tests following bilateral infusions of 0.5μl bicuculline methiodide (BMI, a GABAA receptor antagonist) at doses of 0, 25, or 50ng/μl. Rats were tested in the social interaction test, the social preference test, the sucrose preference test and for locomotor activity (BLA infusions only). ResultsIntra-BLA or PFC BMI infusions decreased the amount of time and the number of social interactions in the social interaction test. Further, in the social preference test, rats infused with 50ng BMI no longer exhibited a preference to explore a social over a non-social stimulus. The change in sociability was not due to a change in reward processing or locomotor behavior. DiscussionDecreasing GABA transmission in either the medial PFC or BLA decreased sociability. Thus, changes in GABA signaling observed in conditions such as autism or schizophrenia may mediate the social withdrawal characteristic of these conditions. Moreover, they suggest that social withdrawal may be treated by drugs that potentiate GABA transmission.

What types of social interactions reduce the risk of psychological distress? Fixed effects longitudinal analysis of a cohort of 30,271 middle-to-older aged Australians

BackgroundResearch on the impact of social interactions on psychological distress tends to be limited to particular forms of support, cross-sectional designs and by the spectre of omitted variables bias. MethodA baseline sample with 3.4±0.95 years follow-up time was extracted from the 45 and Up Study. Change in the risk of psychological distress (Kessler Psychological Distress Scale) was assessed using fixed effects logistic regressions in relation to the number of times in the past week a participant: i) spent time with friends or family they did not live with; ii) talked to friends, relatives or others on the telephone; iii) attended meetings at social clubs or religious groups; and the count of people outside their home, but within one hour travel-time, participants felt close to. Separate models were fitted for men and women, adjusting for age, income, economic and couple status. ResultsAn increase in the number of social interactions was associated with a reduction in the risk of psychological distress, with some gender differences. Interactions with friends or family were important for women (adjusted OR 0.85, 95%CI 0.74, 0.98, p=0.024), whereas telephone calls were effective among men (adjusted OR 0.83, 95%CI 0.72, 0.96, p=0.011). Strong effects for the number of people that can be relied on were observed for men and women, but attendance at clubs and groups was not. No age-specific effects were observed. LimitationsNo indicator of positive mental health. ConclusionsPolicies targeting greater social interactions in middle-to-older age may help protect mental health.

Ageing and loneliness: The role of mobility and the built environment

The ageing of the population raises questions regarding the quality of life of future generations. This article focuses specifically on feelings of loneliness as an important aspect of quality of life in relation with mobility aspects and built environmental characteristics. Based on data collected in the southeast of the Netherlands among 344 respondents in 2014 four ordered logit models were estimated to explain the extent to which people feel lonely or socially isolated. The explanatory variables in the models are age; other personal and household characteristics; characteristics of the built environment and mobility aspects. The results indicate that, although age has little explanatory power, older people are likely to feel lonelier. Other personal and household characteristics, such as household composition, education, health status, being a volunteer and the number of social interactions are found to have more explanatory power. Characteristics of the built environment also explain a substantial part of variance in loneliness. Significant effects are found for living in an apartment, length of residence in the neighbourhood and satisfaction with the neighbourhood and its facilities. Finally, we find that the use of different transport modes (bicycle, car and public transport) significantly reduces loneliness.