Indicator
Relationship quality and health
Published
4 March 2024
Last updated
2 September 2025
Time to read
About 1 min
About 1 min
The quality of our relationships can have a strong influence on our health
This chart shows the proportion of people experiencing severe psychological distress in 2022–23 according to the number of negative relationship aspects they experience. These include the presence of criticism and tension in the relationship. A thorough explanation of the aspects can be found in the technical notes. The data is presented by relationship type: partner, family and friends.
- Across all types of relationship, people with more than three negative relationship aspects are more likely to experience severe psychological distress than people with no negative aspects.
- Partner relationships make the largest difference – people with more than three negative relationship aspects are 5.5 times more likely to experience severe psychological distress than people who have none.
- Psychological distress is measured using the GHQ-12 assessment tool – a recognised indication of a person’s mental health. It includes 12 questions relating to mood dysfunction, social dysfunction and loss of confidence. Each question has a four-point response scale. Responses are added up to give an overall distress score – people with a score of 20 or higher are classified as experiencing severe psychological distress.
- A measure of relationship quality is constructed using 6 questions that capture individual aspects of relationships: ‘Do(es) your partner/family/friends let you down?’; ‘Can you rely on your partner/family/friends?’; ‘Do(es) your partner/family/friends understand you?’; ‘Do(es) your partner/family/friends get on your nerves?’; ‘Can you open up to your partner/family/friends?’; ‘Do(es) your partner/family/friends criticise you?’.
- For each question, the strongest negative answers are used to define negative relationship aspects. People were classified as experiencing negative relationships if they had three or more negative relationship aspects.
Source: Health Foundation analysis of University of Essex – Institute for Social and Economic Research, Understanding Society: Wave 14, UK, 2022–2023.
