Social relationships and health outcomes: benefits and challenges

Abstract

Social interactions have been found to substantially influence health behavior and well-being, but not always in a positive way. This symposium aims at identifying when dyadic interactions result in beneficial and when in negative effects on different health outcomes. Thereby, different control strategies and social exchange processes such as social support and social control will be focused on. Close social relationships play a major role in people’s lives. Examining when and how social interactions are related to well-being and health behavior is of major relevance for health psychologists. The four talks of this symposium focus on the effects of different individual and social control strategies and of different social exchange processes on well-being and health behavior. First, Kenzie Snyder examines the effects of preferences in self-reliance when receiving social support from close others on daily relationship processes and well-being. Nina Knoll then identifies mixed effects of compensatory control strategies on well-being of both partners in dyads where one partner recovers from surgery. Urte Scholz reports on differential effects of positive and negative social control on smoking and affective and behavioral outcomes in the context of smoking cessation. The fourth talk by Janina Lüscher examines effectiveness of receiving and providing social support in couples with both partners trying to quit smoking on smoking behavior and affect. Finally, Tracey Revenson will discuss the findings of the four talks with regard to the existing literature of social relationships and health outcomes.