Social relationships play an integral role in mental health. The quality of social relationships is an important predictor of their benefits, with high-quality social relationships conferring the most positive effects on mental health. The quality of social relationships is often referred to as relational health. Traditionally, the definition of relational health has been delineated by researchers, without input from community members. This study aims to understand how community members receiving behavioral and mental health services define a healthy social relationship.
The participatory, mixed-methods approach of Group Concept Mapping was used to gather input from community members receiving behavioral and mental health services (n = 26) about what healthy social relationships mean to them.
Analysis revealed a six-component definition of relational health per community members receiving behavioral and mental health services: Trust, Honesty, Support, Open Communication, Shared Interests and Having Fun.
The small sample size limits the generalizability of the findings. Replication of the study with a larger sample size is recommended.
The study findings can be used to develop a community member-informed definition of relational health and a corresponding standardized measure. A definition of relational health that is meaningful to community members and an accompanying measurement tool will help mental health service providers better assist community members with the development of healthy social relationships, thereby fostering good mental health.
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that attempted to understand how community members define relational health, as opposed to researcher-defined definitions of relational health.
