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Social relationships are important predictors of a range of individual outcomes, such as wellbeing and health. These social relationships are conceptualised in different ways, such as (inter-personal) forms of social support, identification with groups, or social capital. What is the overlap among these concepts and in what ways do they differ? The present work aims to clarify this with empirical evidence from two panel studies (N = 3934; N = 2912). The studies include central measures of social relationships (group identification, group membership, social support and social capital). Empirical differences and overlap were studied by evaluating the factor structure of the data with both confirmatory factor analyses and bi-factor analyses. Results showed that the different concepts had a large amount of empirical overlap (together accounting for over 60% of common variance). Surprisingly, results also revealed that subcomponents were identifiable based on who they target and not based on their conceptualisation. For example, items about identification with neighbourhood factored together with support items from the neighbourhood, and not with other identification items. Accordingly, we conclude that in addition to a general factor, it is possible to meaningfully distinguish components of social relations based on which group is targeted by the items (e.g. neighbourhood or family and friends). For future research on the relationship between social relations and health, the present measures are unlikely to be sufficiently precise to disentangle whether health effects are caused by identification, support or capital. Differences between targets appear to be more important than differences between these concepts for understanding the relationship between social relations and health and wellbeing.

Social relationships are important predictors of a range of individual outcomes, such as wellbeing and health. These social relationships are conceptualised in different ways, such as (inter-personal) forms of social support, identification with groups, or social capital. What is the overlap among these concepts and in what ways do they differ? The present work aims to clarify this with empirical evidence from two panel studies (N = 3934; N = 2912). The studies include central measures of social relationships (group identification, group membership, social support and social capital). Empirical differences and overlap were studied by evaluating the factor structure of the data with both confirmatory factor analyses and bi-factor analyses. Results showed that the different concepts had a large amount of empirical overlap (together accounting for over 60% of common variance). Surprisingly, results also revealed that subcomponents were identifiable based on who they target and not based on their conceptualisation. For example, items about identification with neighbourhood factored together with support items from the neighbourhood, and not with other identification items. Accordingly, we conclude that in addition to a general factor, it is possible to meaningfully distinguish components of social relations based on which group is targeted by the items (e.g. neighbourhood or family and friends). For future research on the relationship between social relations and health, the present measures are unlikely to be sufficiently precise to disentangle whether health effects are caused by identification, support or capital. Differences between targets appear to be more important than differences between these concepts for understanding the relationship between social relations and health and wellbeing.

Placental histologic examination can assist in revealing the mechanism leading to preterm birth. Accumulating evidence suggests an association between intrauterine pathological processes, morbidity and mortality of premature infants, and their long term outcome. Neonatal brain activity is increasingly monitored in neonatal intensive care units by amplitude integrated EEG (aEEG) and indices of background activity and sleep cycling patterns were correlated with long term outcome. We hypothesized an association between types of placental lesions and abnormal neonatal aEEG patterns.To determine the association between the placental lesions observed in extreme preterm deliveries, and their neonatal aEEG patterns and survival.This prospective cohort study included extreme premature infants, who were born ≤ 28 weeks of gestation, their placentas were available for histologic examination, and had a continues aEEG, soon after birth)n = 34). Infants and maternal clinical data were collected. aEEG data was assessed for percentage of depressed daily activity in the first 3 days of life and for sleep cycling. Associations of placental histology with clinical findings and aEEG activity were explored using parametric and non-parametric statistics.Twenty two out of the 34 newborns survived to discharge. Preterm prelabor rupture of membranes (PPROM) or chorioamnionitis were associated with placental lesions consistent with fetal amniotic fluid infection (AFI) or maternal under perfusion (MUP) (P < 0.05). Lesions consistent with fetal response to AFI were associated with absence of SWC pattern during the 1st day of life. Fetal-vascular-thrombo-occlusive lesions of inflammatory type were negatively associated with depressed cerebral activity during the 1st day of life, and with aEEG cycling during the 2nd day of life (P