Research across disciplines and populations suggests possible psychosocial mechanisms to explain how social ties promote health. Mechanisms include (but are not limited to): social support, personal control, symbolic meanings and norms, and mental health. While most studies focus on only one or two of these mechanisms, it is clear that connections between mechanisms are complex, and that these interconnections may explain the linkage between social ties and health better than any single mechanism (Thoits 1995; Umberson et al. 2010).
