The Social Environment and Mental Health: A Review of Past Research at the Institute for Social Research

Abstract Background: The social environment, including social support, social burden, and quality of interactions, influences a range of health outcomes, including mental health. Passive audio data collection on mobile phones (e.g., episodic recording of the auditory environment without requiring any active input from the phone user) enables new opportunities to understand the social environment. We evaluated the use of passive audio collection on mobile phones as a window onto the relationship between the social environment within a study of mental health among adolescent mothers in Nepal.Methods: We enrolled 23 adolescent mothers who first participated in qualitative interviews to describe their social support and identify sounds potentially associated with that support. Then episodic recordings were collected for two weeks from the same women using an app to capture 30 seconds of audio every 15 minutes from 4am to 9pm. Audio data were processed and classified using a pretrained model. Each classification category was accompanied by a predicted accuracy score. Manual validation of the machine-predicted speech and non-speech categories (10%) was done for accuracy.Results: In qualitative interviews, mothers described a range of positive and negative social interactions and the sounds that accompanied these. Potential positive sounds included adult speech and laughter, baby babbling and laughter, and sounds from baby toys. Sounds characterizing negative stimuli included yelling, crying, screaming by adults and crying by babies. Sounds associated with social isolation included silence and TV or radio noises. Speech comprised of 43% of all passively recorded audio clips (n=7725). Manual validation showed a 23% false positive rate and 62% false-negative rate for speech, demonstrating potential underestimation of speech exposure. Other common sounds included music and vehicular noises.Conclusions: Passively capturing audio has the potential to improve understanding of the social environment. However, the limited accuracy of the pre-trained model used in this study did not adequately distinguish between positive and negative social interactions. To improve the contribution of passive audio collection to understanding the social environment, future work should improve the accuracy of audio categorization, code for constellations of sounds, and combine audio with other smartphone data collection such as location and activity.

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The wider social system

Mentalising and Epistemic Trust ◽

10.1093/med-psych/9780198871187.003.0010 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 238-281

Author(s):

Robbie Duschinsky ◽

Sarah Foster

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Social Environment ◽

Social System ◽

Public Mental Health ◽

Epistemic Trust ◽

School Based ◽

System P ◽

The Social ◽

The Individual

Critics have alleged that in attempting to adapt to the individual-centric environment of contemporary health provision, mentalization-based therapy itself has been complicit with the atomization of society. Conversations with his colleague Peter Fuggle and Dickon Bevington at the Anna Freud Centre have also had a profound role in highlighting to Fonagy the importance of the wider social system around the individual. Pursuing these questions, this chapter begins by examining the growing attention to the social environment shown by Fonagy and colleagues, and especially their exploration of the role of friends and friendships for mentalization and epistemic trust. It will then examine the reflections and research by Fonagy and collaborators on public mental health. The researchers’ hopes regarding school-based prevention will be given particular attention, and the chapter will also show how this work has shaped Fonagy’s efforts as a policy influencer. Finally, the chapter will appraise the considerations offered by Fonagy and colleagues of the role of culture, in particular the issue of whether attention to cultural processes should be regarded as mentalizing, non-mentalizing or as not mentalizing, and whether organizations and societies can themselves be said to institutionalize cultures of mentalizing or non-mentalizing.

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Using technology for studying populations off the social mainstream

Social Work and Social Sciences Review ◽

10.1921/swssr.v21i1.1518 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 21 (1) ◽

pp. 52-72

Author(s):

Roni Berger

Keyword(s):

Social Research ◽

Past Research ◽

Future Research ◽

Hidden Populations ◽

Population Groups ◽

Case Examples ◽

Effective Strategies ◽

Sensitive Topics ◽

The Social ◽

Rich Data

Recognition has been growing of the importance and unique challenges of studying the experience and related personal and relationship outcomes in marginalized populations (e.g. nonwhites, non-heterosexual, indigenous people, those impacted by poverty, physical disability and mental illness, victims of domestic violence). Traditional social research yielded limited knowledge about such population groups due to issues of positionality, limited accessibility and stigmatization. Partcipatory and qualitative methods offered some culturally sensitive effective strategies for generating relevant knowledge about ‘hidden’ populations that were excluded from past research. The constant development of technology expands the possibilities for such research by offering innovative ways to address some of the aforementioned challenges in accessing previously hard to reach population groups and collecting rich data especially relative to sensitive topics. These developments raised debates regarding ethical, logistic and methodological issues including the potential impact of social desirability and differential access to technology. Informed by a review of available knowledge about groups in the half shadows and about using technology for social research, this article discusses and uses two case examples to illustrate employing technology-assisted research of populations under the radar. Future research should continue to focus on identifying additional uses of technology to further develop ways of generating knowledge about those who have been ‘in the half shadow’ to inform the development of appropriate services, intervention strategies and policies that can help enhance social justice.

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The impact of the social environment on children's mental health in a prosperous city: an analysis with data from the city of Munich

BMC Public Health ◽

10.1186/1471-2458-10-199 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 21

Author(s):

Laura Perna ◽

Gabriele Bolte ◽

Heidi Mayrhofer ◽

Gabriele Spies ◽

Andreas Mielck

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Social Environment ◽

Children’S Mental Health ◽

Children's Mental Health ◽

The Social ◽

The Impact ◽

The City

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The Impact of Shared Versus Individual Office Space on Therapist Appraisal of Their Work Environment

Asia Pacific Journal of Health Management ◽

10.24083/apjhm.v13i1.33 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

pp. i26

Author(s):

Shane L Rogers ◽

Stephen J Edwards ◽

Rebecca Perera

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Work Environment ◽

Social Environment ◽

Working Conditions ◽

Physical Environment ◽

Primary Objective ◽

Physical Work ◽

Office Space ◽

The Social ◽

The Impact

Objective: The primary objective was to investigate the impact of shared versus individual office space on therapist appraisal of the work physical and social environment, and overall appraisal of working conditions. Method: Therapists (n = 59) from Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services in Western Australia were surveyed about their appraisal of the social and physical work environment, in addition to their overall appraisal of working conditions. Results: Compared to therapists with individual offices, therapists occupying shared office space reported lower appraisal of the work physical environment and lower overall appraisal of working conditions. No difference was found between groups for appraisal of the work social environment. Additionally, when statistically controlling for office space, both the appraisal of the social and physical environment made an independent contribution to the prediction of overall work satisfaction. Conclusion: This research reveals that shared office space can negatively impact therapist appraisal of their work environment and reduce overall appraisal of working conditions. Additionally, results reveal the high importance of the physical environment for staff satisfaction in a mental health service.

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DESAFIOS DA PRÁTICA PASTORAL NA CONTEMPORANEIDADE

REFLEXUS - Revista Semestral de Teologia e Ciências das Religiões ◽

10.20890/reflexus.v11i18.528 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 11 (18) ◽

pp. 499

Author(s):

Eduardo Leandro Alves ◽

Júlio Cézar Adam

Keyword(s):

Social Environment ◽

Practical Theology ◽

Social Research ◽

Faith Community ◽

Human Being ◽

The Social ◽

Biblical Principles ◽

Pastoral Practice ◽

Pastoral Action

O objetivo deste artigo é analisar fundamentos da ação pastoral, com vistas a compreender que a ação pastoral e a pregação são interdependentes, cuja relevância está intimamente ligada no envolvimento diário com aqueles que estão no “raio de alcance” pastoral. Inicialmente, com o intuito de compreender o ambiente social em questão, utiliza-se o método de etnografia da pesquisa social. Em seguida utiliza-se caminhos propostos pela Teologia Prática identificando princípios bíblicos para a pregação na ação pastoral com vistas a alcançar o objetivo de cuidar do ser humano conforme os ensinos do Evangelho de Jesus. Busca-se alinhar neste texto a teoria com a prática do pesquisador no pastoreio de uma igreja Pentecostal. Assim, as perspectivas aqui registradas não visam a ser exaustivas ou normativas, mas fazem parte de um recorte no exercício pastoral nessa comunidade de fé.The purpose of this article is to analyse the basis of pastoral action in order to understand that both pastoral action and preaching are mutually dependent. The relevance of pastoral action is related to the daily engagement with those who are within the pastoral scope. Firstly, an ethnographic method of social research is used to properly understand the social environment at issue. Secondly, the paths proposed by Practical Theology were followed. They identify biblical principles for preaching in order to reach the goal of caring for the human being according to the teachings of Jesus. An alignment of the theory with the practice of the researcher as shepherding a Pentecostal church is attempted. Thus, the perspectives showed are not intended to be exhaustive or normative but they are taken from an example of the pastoral practice in that faith community.

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