Risk factor loneliness. On the interrelations between social integration, happiness and health in 11-, 13- and 15-year old schoolchildren in 9 European countries

Arguments for what one might call a ‘socio-somatic’ theory may be rooted in the sociological concept of anomie on the one hand, and in the clinical concepts of stress and coping on the other. The common denominator of all these concepts is the insight that functioning patterns of interaction with significant others are a basic prerequisite for psychosocial health. Our data give further empirical evidence for this. Schoolchildren aged 11 to 15 years who are socially well integrated, report significantly better health than those who are not. The social processes in the classroom-society seem to have a reinforcing effect on this apparent feedback loop between social integration and somatically manifest well-being. Reported feelings of loneliness and reports of having been the victim of bullying correlate strongly with each other, and also with the intake of medicaments. For health promotion rationales, explicit inclusion of the social climate in the classroom as a potential risk factor for psychosocial and somatically manifest health will have to be considered.