IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/socpsy/v67y2021i6p779-787.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Strengthening positive social pathways via digital social applications in individuals with social skills deficits: A scoping review

Author

Listed:
  • Asiyeh Salehi
  • Elham Salehi
  • Mahsa Mosadeghi-Nik
  • Sally Sargeant
  • Farhad Fatehi

Abstract

Background: Effective digital social capital interventions have great potential to establish trusted social pathways to access supportive services and to enable talking about issues contributing to distress. Aim: This review explores the digital social capital interventions used in individuals with social skills deficits, and the best social health outcomes achieved. Method: Four databases (PubMed, CINAHL, PsychINFO, and Web of Science) were used with no time limitation, and 33 papers were included. Results: A diverse range of digital social programs was used for social capital improvement based on individuals’ characteristics (e.g. age range and illnesses). Programs ranged from digitally-enhanced self-help or self-guided treatment (to enhance the self-efficacy of individuals), to group treatments and/or web-based caregiver support services. They comprised mobile social apps, video blogging, video-communication system/video-conferencing, and online social communication, to more advanced techniques such as virtual reality. All of these modalities were shown to be beneficial for improving the social health of individuals. Interventions targeted two aspects of social capital: (1) cognitive social capital, focusing on enhancing trust and control, self-efficacy on life. Some examples were cognitive behavioural therapy, and increasing the received and more importantly perceived social support. (2) structural social capital, focusing on individuals’ relationships with family/carers, friends, peers to other connections at the macro level, such as health care providers and their community as a whole. The two interconnected aspects of social capital play a role in decreasing fears of being judged by others, general fears in social interactions and interpersonal problems. Conclusion: Guided digital social support interventions result in open and flexible access to various resources through supportive social networks, for patients and their family members/carers.

Suggested Citation

  • Asiyeh Salehi & Elham Salehi & Mahsa Mosadeghi-Nik & Sally Sargeant & Farhad Fatehi, 2021. "Strengthening positive social pathways via digital social applications in individuals with social skills deficits: A scoping review," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 67(6), pages 779-787, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:socpsy:v:67:y:2021:i:6:p:779-787
    DOI: 10.1177/0020764020963354
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0020764020963354
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0020764020963354?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Vivian Welch & Elizabeth T. Ghogomu & Victoria I. Barbeau & Sierra Dowling & Rebecca Doyle & Ella Beveridge & Elisabeth Boulton & Payaam Desai & Jimmy Huang & Nour Elmestekawy & Tarannum Hussain & Arp, 2023. "Digital interventions to reduce social isolation and loneliness in older adults: An evidence and gap map," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(4), December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:socpsy:v:67:y:2021:i:6:p:779-787. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.