The number of empirical studies investigating mental health and resilience worldwide is enormous. However, very often the contribution of a single factor is studied in insolation, for example the contribution of certain biomarkers or the role of social support.
Research fields focusing on biological, psychological and social factors are quite isolated. This doesn’t resemble real world mental health and resilience that is determined by the interaction of numerous biological, psychological and social factors.
In this project we aim to build an integrative and causal model of biological, psychological and social factors contributing to mental health and resilience.
We do so by using a triangulation approach to create a causal loop diagram representing mental health and resilience. The triangulation steps involved include, expert group model building, literature review, and causal discovery analyses. This process is inherently based on a team science approach as many fields of expertise need to be combined.
This study is meant as a proof of concept study that this triangulation approach is a valuable way to create causal loops diagrams in which bio-psycho-social factors are integrated. The model is not meant to be an exhaustive representation of mental health and resilience. The included factors are ‘limited’ to those included in the Healthy Brain Study (HBS).
The Healthy Brain Study is a unique and rich dataset including numerous bio-psycho-social health-related variables in a large sample of healthy adults.
COLLABORATORS: dr. Maaike Verhagen, dr. Jeroen Uleman, dr. Farid Abdo, & dr. Jana Vyrastekova
FUNDING: This project is funded by a pre-seed grant from the Healthy Brain Study.