What are 10 social health examples?

What are 3 social health facts?

To understand social health more clearly, it’s important to understand the facts surrounding it. Social health examples include hanging out with friends, being physically active, and balancing your social and personal time. Seeking to enhance those activities and moments by understanding how situations make you and those around you feel are emotional health examples. Here are some facts that illustrate the importance of having a healthy social life. They also help in assessing ways to improve or maintain it. 

  • Loneliness can impact health. Not seeking social relationships can lead to disrupted sleep patterns, elevated blood pressure and increased cortisol levels. Loneliness is also a risk factor for depression and suicide. Reaching out to friends, family, neighbors or coworkers are ways to prevent being lonely. Ask someone to grab a cup of coffee or go for a walk.
  • Increased longevity. Studies show that individuals with the lowest level of involvement in social relationships are more likely to die sooner than those with greater involvement. Social isolation increases a person’s risk of premature death by 29%. Like we mentioned earlier, invite those around you to hang out. As you build your relationship, you’ll both reap the health benefits.
  • Better cognitive health. It’s no surprise that having healthy social engagement can maintain cognitive function. Strong relationships in older adults lead to a lower risk of dementia and mental decline, while social isolation is associated with a 50% increase in dementia.

What are social health strengths and weaknesses examples?

Like physical and mental health, there are strengths and weaknesses that come with social factors affecting health and illness. You may already know what it takes to maintain your social health, but here are some signs to see if you’re on the right track or need to change direction.

Strengths:

  • You balance your alone and social time. A healthy ratio between alone and social time varies from person to person. Extroverts may need more social interaction, while introverts aim for more solitude. Having the right balance means you’re socially healthy.
  • You’re assertive but not aggressive. Letting others know how you feel, while not having to apologize or feel resentful for stating your needs, is important to being socially healthy. This strength needs effective communication skills.
  • You can be yourself. Being comfortable in your own skin and having a sense of belonging are crucial in being socially healthy.
  • You participate in the community. Part of being socially active away from those in your family or household is being involved in your community. Whether you volunteer at your church or a nonprofit, play sports at the local YMCA, or help at your kid’s school, those are signs of a healthy social life.
  • You have fun. One of the main reasons to focus on your social health is to have fun. Life can get busy and stressful, so when you’re interacting with friends and those in your community, be sure to enjoy it.

Weaknesses:

  • Poor communication skills. How can you effectively socialize with others when you lack communication skills? Maintain eye contact, use active listening and keep your body language in mind when conversing with others.
  • Low self-esteem. This can be caused by past experiences, mental illnesses and other factors.
  • You wait for others to make plans. Making the first move in planning to hang out with friends and casual contacts can help your social health. Others may not realize you want to meet for coffee, so reach out first.
  • Social media. This one is two-fold. Social media is known to impact social health positively and negatively. Users can stay in touch with others to maintain and strengthen relationships while also harming connections from superficial posts and communication habits.
  • Keep commitments. Sometimes it may be easier to cancel plans and just stay home, but that can harm your relationship and future opportunities to go out. If you can’t make the scheduled hangout, ask to reschedule.

What causes poor social health?

Sometimes it can be difficult to understand what causes poor social health. Whether it’s things you can control or how others make you feel, there are many factors affecting social health. Here are a few examples that cause poor social health: 

  • Bad influences. At first, you may think a friend or friend group has your best interests in mind and brings out the best in you. But over time, that thought may change with how they treat you. Bad friends may not support you, be trusted with secrets or be counted on when you need them. It’s important to have people around you who will be there in a time of need, which will help your social health.
  • Toxic relationships. Being around a person who is controlling, emotionally unstable or jealous can cause you physical and mental harm.
  • People change. You may have had common interests with a friend years ago, but now you both seem to be on different paths. If that’s the case, it may be best to distance yourself even further, especially if their interests are a bad influence on you.

After reading what causes poor social health, you might be asking yourself: “What are positive examples for social health?” In our list below, you’ll learn what are 10 social health examples that you can implement today.

  • Make connections.
  • Engage with people in your community.
  • Communicate effectively.
  • Create healthy boundaries.
  • Practice self-care.
  • Get active together.
  • Build strong relationships with friends.
  • Treat others with respect.
  • Learn to say “no.”
  • Be yourself.

What are the 4 things about social health?

In this article, we’ve covered many social health topics from facts to strengths and weaknesses to what causes poor social health. It doesn’t matter where you were born, what your profession is, the type of schooling you have completed or other environmental health topics that may affect you — it’s still important to have healthy social relationships with those around you.

Check out our Hello4Health resources, and remember these four things to be socially healthy:

  • Social health is our ability to interact and form meaningful relationships with others.
  • Social relationships contribute to our overall health and quality of life.
  • Strong social connections are linked to a longer life, reduced stress and improved heart health.
  • Social health doesn’t depend on family status as you can enhance your social well-being through friends and other relationships. 

Learn more about adult social well-being and connectedness by checking out Hello4Health’s online resources and following us on social media.