Elsevier

Psychiatry Research

Volume 228, Issue 3, 30 August 2015, Pages 340-346
Psychiatry Research

Identification with social groups is associated with mental health in adolescents: Evidence from a Scottish community sample

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2015.05.088Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Group identification is protective of the mental health of high school students.

  • Identification with family, school and friendship groups predicts symptoms.

  • Odds of reporting psychiatric disturbance decrease with each group identification.

  • Effects hold even when age, gender, and group contact are controlled for.

Abstract

The promotion and maintenance of mental health is an increasingly important societal issue. Previous research has shown that identification with social groups is positively associated with adult mental wellbeing, with multiple group identifications being particularly beneficial. The aim of the current study was to investigate whether the same is true for adolescents. 1111 Scottish secondary school students aged 13–17 completed a questionnaire investigating mental health symptoms and the extent of their identification with their family, school, and friendship groups. Higher identification with each group predicted better mental health. There was also an additive effect of group identification, with the odds of reporting psychiatric disturbance decreasing for every additional group with which participants identified strongly. These effects held even when age, gender, and group contact were controlled for. Our findings have implications for the prevention and treatment of mental problems, offering an alternative to traditional ways of viewing mental illness in adolescence and beyond.

Introduction

Researchers from numerous disciplines agree that membership in social groups (e.g., family, social club, local community, tribe) is a core feature of human existence (Tuomela, 2007, Tomasello, 2014). Group membership typically involves some degree of engagement in group related activities and interaction with in-group members. However, one may also develop feelings of belonging, affiliation and connectedness to a group, coupled with a sense of commonality with fellow group members (Sani et al., 2014). Researchers adopting a social identity approach to group processes (Turner et al., 1987) define these positive feelings and cognitions about an in-group as group identification. Group identification is distinct from merely being part of a group – it refers to the subjective aspects of group membership, including the sense of identity and self-definition provided by feeling subjectively attached to a group (e.g., Jetten et al., 2012). It is therefore important to make this distinction between contact with/connectedness to groups, and a sense of identification with them.

The social identity perspective has helped to highlight the important effects that group identification can have on individuals’ behavior and mental processes, either among adults (e.g., Haslam, 2004) or children and adolescents (Bennet and Sani, 2008a, Bennet and Sani, 2008b). In particular, researchers have demonstrated that we tend to help, like, and cooperate with people who are members of groups with which we identify. We are also likely to receive such benefits from other group members in return (e.g., Turner et al., 1987; Haslam et al., 2004; Levine and Thompson, 2004; Levine et al., 2005; Platow et al., 2007).

Importantly, the various benefits of group identification also extend to the domain of mental health. For instance, researchers have demonstrated that greater identification with the family (Sani et al., 2010), the work group (Wegge et al., 2006, Haslam et al., 2009, Sani et al., 2012), and the support group (Wakefield et al., 2013) predict higher levels of psychological wellbeing and lower levels of self-reported psychiatric symptoms (particularly depression, anxiety, and stress). Moreover, the relationship between group identification and mental health appears to be highly consistent: systematically reviewing thirteen such studies, Cruwys and colleagues found the typical Pearson's correlation coefficient between group identification and self-reported depression to approximate −0.30 (Cruwys et al., 2014).

While such studies have emphasized the important effects that group identification can have on the mental health of adult populations, very few social identity researchers have considered the potential impact of group identification on the mental health of adolescents. This is a significant oversight, since 75% of mental disorders emerge before the age of 25, and many argue that the mental health of young people is worsening (McGorry, 2013). The presentation of mental health problems in adolescence increases the risk of mental ill-health in adulthood (Birchwood and Singh, 2013); a fact that has prompted calls for adolescent treatment plans to be put in place, and for preventative action to be taken earlier in the life-course of potentially-vulnerable individuals (Wang et al., 2007, Sawyer et al., 2012). These calls are supported by research indicating that early treatment can reduce the social consequences of mental illness (Kessler et al., 1997, Kessler et al., 1998), decrease comorbidity with more complex conditions (Kessler and Price, 1993), lessen suicidality (Meltzer et al., 2003), and reduce ‘neural kindling’, which can cause untreated disorders to worsen (Post and Weiss, 1998).

One of the few social identity-based papers to address the important issue of adolescent mental health is that by Bizumic et al. (2009). The authors found that greater school identification was associated with lower levels of depression, more positive affect, and less destructive behavior in a sample of Australian high school pupils. However, this study neglects an important fact: that school pupils can identify with multiple groups, not just their school.

One of the central tenets of social identity theory is that we are all members of multiple social groups, even though we are unlikely to identify with all of these groups (Tajfel and Turner, 1979). The potential health benefits of multiple group memberships have started to receive attention in the social identity literature (e.g., Jones and Jetten, 2011), but, more importantly, so have the potential health benefits of identifying simultaneously with multiple social groups. For instance, in their study assessing well-being after joining university, Iyer et al. (2009) concluded that multiple group identifications can be particularly beneficial for wellbeing, because being a member of a group with which one has a sense of belonging can provide individuals with knowledge and opportunities (Bourdieu, 1979/1984) which, in turn, can provide material and psychological resources. Individuals who identify with multiple groups therefore have more resources and support available to them than those with fewer group identifications (e.g. Haslam et al., 2005; Iyer et al., 2009).

However, to our knowledge, there has been no research conducted in order to investigate the effect of multiple group identifications on the mental health of adolescents. We consider this a significant oversight: to help young people achieve good mental health as they move into adulthood, it is important that they feel safe and supported in multiple group contexts, including the family, the school, and peer/friendship groups (Viner et al., 2012).

With these issues in mind, our aim is to investigate the relative impact of each of these groups (family, school, and friends) on adolescent mental wellbeing. Based on Bizumic et al.'s (2009) findings regarding adolescent identification with a single group (as well the findings of studies regarding adult identification with single groups, e.g., Sani et al., 2009; Rosenthal et al., 2014), we suggest that identification with each of the three groups under study will predict better adolescent mental health (Hypothesis 1). In line with Iyer et al.'s (2009) suggestion, we further hypothesize that there will be a cumulative effect of group identifications, with multiple group identifications decreasing mental health symptoms (Hypothesis 2).

Section snippets

Participants and procedure

Our study is based on Wave 1 of a 2-wave longitudinal research project. The Wave 1 sample included 1111 pupils (553 males, 553 females, Mage=15.07 years, SD=0.97, range: 13–17 years) from four Scottish public (non-fee-paying) secondary (high) schools. Schools were chosen based on their willingness and ability to participate fully in both waves.

Each school obtained parental permission for all pupils to participate in the study. Pupils also gave their personal informed consent before

Incidence of psychiatric disturbance

32.80% of our sample (45.40% of females and 20.30% of males) met the criterion for presence of psychiatric disturbance. This is a great deal higher than GHQ-12 rates reported in the most recent Scottish Health Survey (Scottish Government, 2012) which reported that in the period 2008–2011, only 9% of children scored above the clinical cut-off (11% of females and 7% of males).

Frequencies, descriptives, reliabilities, and inter-correlations

First, we calculated the proportion of our sample scoring above the clinical cut-off on the GHQ-12. We found that 32.80%

Discussion

In relation to our predictions, the results support both our hypotheses. Concerning Hypothesis 1, we found that identification with each of the three groups (family, school, and friends) predicted participants’ GHQ-12 score, such that the more strongly the participants identified with each group, the fewer mental health symptoms they experienced. Identification with each group uniquely predicted mental wellbeing, with school and family identification being the strongest of the three predictors,

Contributors

Author 1 co-devised the questionnaire, collected the data, co-analyzed the data, and co-wrote the paper. Author 2 co-analyzed the data and co-wrote the paper. Author 3 co-devised the questionnaire and co-analyzed the data.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that there is no potential conflict of interest with respect to the authorship and/or publication of this article.

Acknowledgment

This research was conducted as part of the first author's PhD., which was funded by the School of Psychology, University of Dundee. The authors would also like to thank the staff, pupils and parents of the schools involved for their participation in the study.

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