Nothing is so impactful as good theory: Evidence for the impact of the social identity approach to health on policy and practice

IF 4.9 2区医学 Q1 PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH

Social Science & Medicine Pub Date : 2025-05-09 DOI:10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118164

Tegan Cruwys , S. Alexander Haslam , Niklas K. Steffens , Catherine Haslam , Stephen D. Reicher

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

This research sought to evaluate the uptake of research on social identity and health among policymakers and practitioners. It also sought to identify the research outputs that have had the greatest impact and to understand the nature of their impact. Policy impact tools in Elsevier's SciVal institutional subscription were utilised in combination with Overton. We extracted all articles within the social identity approach to health topic 1996–2023 as defined by SciVal, along with all citing policy documents as captured by Overton. Summary statistics and trends for this topic along with seven comparable topics were also extracted. More than 1 in 5 articles on the social identity approach to health are cited in policy documents, a proportion that is greater than that reported in other areas of applied psychology; for example, theory of planned behaviour, self-determination theory, and ego-depletion. Policy documents that advocated for community and social interventions to improve population mental health were particularly likely to draw on this research. Overall, the paper makes two general contributions. First we demonstrate the importance of social identity approach to health research for social/community interventions. We found that social identity and health research has had an outsized impact on policy and discuss several features of the theory and literature that may underpin this impact. Second, we provide a novel method for evaluating research impact that could be utilised across disciplines.

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没有什么比好的理论更有影响力：社会认同方法对健康政策和实践影响的证据

这项研究旨在评估决策者和从业人员对社会认同和健康研究的吸收情况。它还设法查明影响最大的研究成果，并了解其影响的性质。Elsevier的SciVal机构订阅中的政策影响工具与Overton结合使用。我们提取了由SciVal定义的1996-2023年健康主题的社会认同方法中的所有文章，以及由Overton捕获的所有引用政策文件。还提取了该主题以及七个可比主题的摘要统计数据和趋势。政策文件中引用了关于社会认同保健方法的五分之一以上的文章，这一比例高于应用心理学其他领域报告的比例；例如，计划行为理论，自我决定理论和自我损耗理论。提倡社区和社会干预以改善人口心理健康的政策文件特别有可能借鉴这项研究。总的来说，本文有两个主要贡献。首先，我们证明了社会认同方法对社会/社区干预健康研究的重要性。我们发现社会认同和健康研究对政策产生了巨大的影响，并讨论了可能支持这种影响的理论和文献的几个特征。其次，我们提供了一种评估研究影响的新方法，可以跨学科使用。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Social Science & Medicine PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH-

CiteScore

9.10

自引率

5.60%

发文量

762

审稿时长

38 days

期刊介绍： Social Science & Medicine provides an international and interdisciplinary forum for the dissemination of social science research on health. We publish original research articles (both empirical and theoretical), reviews, position papers and commentaries on health issues, to inform current research, policy and practice in all areas of common interest to social scientists, health practitioners, and policy makers. The journal publishes material relevant to any aspect of health from a wide range of social science disciplines (anthropology, economics, epidemiology, geography, policy, psychology, and sociology), and material relevant to the social sciences from any of the professions concerned with physical and mental health, health care, clinical practice, and health policy and organization. We encourage material which is of general interest to an international readership.