Group belonging, such as groups and relationships with those most like oneself, can provide a person with support and resources to prevent or reduce loneliness and socialization as well as to improve their well-being, the report said. Connections to people outside of one’s group also improve health and well-being.
The surgeon general’s report places religious groups among volunteer organizations, sports groups, and member associations that help bring people together. Communities whose members are “more connected” have better population health, resilience in the face of natural disasters, community safety, economic prosperity, civic engagement, and representative government.
The negative effects of cohesive communities
There can be downsides to strong social connections, including polarization, according to the report. Gangs, extremist groups, or other harmful groups are negative examples of strong communities. People in highly cohesive groups can sometimes show distrust and rejection of outsiders and destructive favoritism toward group members. There can be pressures to conform and “high costs” like rejection or ostracism for failure.
“While high cohesion and conformity to group norms can be healthy and productive in many cases, among some groups, these social pressures may justify, rationalize, or encourage unhealthy, unsafe, or unfair behaviors such as binge drinking, violence, and discrimination,” the report said.
The pandemic’s silver lining
The decline in social connection was a decades-long trend before the COVID-19 pandemic. Declines in the marriage rate and household size indicate declines in the “critical structural elements of social connection.” Americans have fewer close friends and fewer in-person encounters with others.
The pandemic itself and the public health measures in response made the absence of social connection particularly clear to the public and to health authorities. The benefits of community participation were also a factor in the pandemic response: More than 120 million American individuals informally helped others from September 2020 to September 2021, while more than 60 million Americans formally volunteered as part of an organization.
“While profoundly disruptive in so many ways, the COVID-19 pandemic offers an opportunity to reflect more deeply on the state of social connection in our lives and in society,” the report said. “As we emerge from this era, rebuilding social connection and community offers us a promising and hopeful way forward.”
The surgeon general called for investments in addressing social connection as a health problem, comparing the fight against loneliness and isolation to public health efforts against tobacco use, obesity, and drug addiction.
Kevin J. Jones is a senior staff writer with Catholic News Agency. He was a recipient of a 2014 Catholic Relief Services' Egan Journalism Fellowship.