Greater number of group identifications is associated with healthier behaviour: evidence from a Scottish community sample

Fabio Sani (Lead / Corresponding author), Vishnu Madhok, Michael Norbury, Pat Dugard, Juliet R. H. Wakefield

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    99 Citations (Scopus)
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    Abstract

    Objectives
    This paper investigates the interplay between group identification (i.e., the extent to which one has a sense of belonging to a social group, coupled with a sense of commonality with in-group members) and four types of health behaviour, namely physical exercise, smoking, drinking, and diet. Specifically, we propose a positive relationship between one's number of group identifications and healthy behaviour.
    Design
    This study is based on the Scottish portion of the data obtained for Wave 1 of the two-wave cross-national Health in Groups project. Totally 1,824 patients from five Scottish general practitioner (GP) surgeries completed the Wave 1 questionnaire in their homes.
    Methods
    Participants completed measures of group identification, group contact, health behaviours, and demographic variables.
    Results
    Results demonstrate that the greater the number of social groups with which one identifies, the healthier one's behaviour on any of the four health dimensions considered.
    Conclusions
    We believe our results are due to the fact that group identification will generally (1) enhance one's sense of meaning in life, thereby leading one to take more care of oneself, (2) increase one's sense of responsibility towards other in-group members, thereby enhancing one's motivation to be healthy in order to fulfil those responsibilities, and (3) increase compliance with healthy group behavioural norms. Taken together, these processes amply overcompensate for the fact that some groups with which people may identify can actually prescribe unhealthy behaviours.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)466-481
    Number of pages16
    JournalBritish Journal of Health Psychology
    Volume20
    Issue number3
    Early online date1 Oct 2014
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2015

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