Session: The Complex Interplay of Mental Health Symptoms and Social Support Networks across Diverse Contexts: Risks and Protective Factors (Society for Social Work and Research 31st Annual Conference)

Research on social connections maintains that social support and robust social networks are vital to mental health and human flourishing. Those with few social network ties and infrequent social contact are more likely to experience negative mental health outcomes, including depression, anxiety, and PTSD symptoms in response to potentially traumatic experiences. Additionally, mental health symptoms, including serious and persistent mental illness, may impair individuals’ capacity to develop and maintain robust social network ties, leading to greater symptom severity, poorer quality of life, and shortened life expectancy.

This symposium brings together four quantitative papers focused on the myriad ways in which mental health challenges and social support interact to create distinct outcomes across disparate settings. These papers are united in their focus on mental health and social connection across the lifespan and across varied contexts. However, each paper approaches the connection between mental health and social connectedness from a slightly different perspective. These perspectives link to formative social support theoretical frameworks such as the stress-buffering hypothesis, the direct effects model, and the social erosion model of social support.

In the first paper, “Social connectedness for individuals with serious mental illnesses,” the authors examined social network changes among individuals with serious mental illness (SMI) pre and post COVID. Their findings, that social network size diminished for individuals with SMI post COVID, reflect the reality of social erosion and offer pathways for intervention. In the second paper, “Social support moderates the association between mental health symptoms and child maltreatment risk”, the authors utilize a stress buffering perspective to identify the specific types of social support that moderate the impact of expectant parents’ depression, anxiety, and PTSD on their risk for child maltreatment. Social support is a promising avenue for prevention and intervention among parents with mental health symptoms.

The third paper, “Perceived workplace supports and work-related wellbeing in a national sample of obstetrician-gynecologists”, examines the direct association between workplace supports and provider mental health (depression, anxiety, and burnout) among OB-GYNs in the wake of the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson supreme court decision. Institutional-level social and instrumental supports directly improved mental health among OB-GYNs, regardless of geography and legal climate. In the final scoping review paper, “Social support in adulthood mediates the impact of childhood maltreatment (CM) history on mental health outcomes”, the authors review literature on the links between childhood maltreatment and adult social support, finding that associations between CM and adult mental health may be mediated through social support.

The proposed symposium is well-suited for SSWR’s conference theme of utilizing social work research to build a more inclusive society, “where dignity can flourish”, and directly addresses the importance of strengthening the bonds between people. The authors, affiliated with six separate universities across the country, uniquely examine the interplay of mental health and social support factors related to risk and resilience in their papers. The discussant, an expert in mental health and helping relationships, will address the larger implications of the research presented and implications for social work policy and practice.