Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Alone In A Crowd: Perceived Social Relationships And Health Outcomes For Clergy, Christopher G. Ford

Psychology ETDs

The purpose of this study was to understand more about the relative contributions of different measures of social relationships to mental and physical health. This was done through secondary analysis of a clergy health intervention (n = 616), a population with unique professional and personal relationship characteristics. Hierarchal multiple regression was used in three steps to control for demographics, measures of perceived social relationships (e.g., social support, social engagement, social isolation, and relationship satisfaction), and whether or not clergy worked alone or with clergy colleagues. The results demonstrated that the relationship variables entered together, after controlling for demographics, were particularly …