Connecting to cultivate healthy relationships

It seemed crucial to us, for awareness and prevention purposes, to facilitate access to scientifically informed data for as many people as possible. With this in mind, an initial effort to present our study results in the form of infographics was made through our laboratory's Facebook page. However, we noticed that our audience was primarily from the academic realm, and our posts failed to reach the general public, mainly due to the frequent use of scientific jargon. Given the challenges associated with mobilizing scientific knowledge among the general public, we were concerned about adapting our communication methods. This led to the idea of focusing our outreach efforts on Instagram, where the audience is generally younger and where there is a lack of scientific support in the information circulating.

As part of our knowledge mobilization project, we decided to focus on interpersonal relationships, specifically friendships and intimate relationships. These types of relationships are the most important for most adults aged 18 to 301, who make up most of our audience on Instagram. The perception that young adults have of the quality of their interpersonal relationships is crucial for their psychological and physical health2,3,4,5. However, compared to older adults, early adulthood is the period during which individuals are most likely to experience dissatisfaction with their social relationships6. This period also constitutes a pivotal stage of life during which these young people will encounter several challenges in establishing and maintaining their interpersonal relationships (such as conflicts, breakups, and risks of violence). The positive and negative experiences stemming from these relationships will serve as a foundation for their future relationships. For example, negative sexual experiences may be linked to lower sexual satisfaction, while betrayal can affect the ability to trust and feel safe with others.

In this context, our student initiative aims to publish content on Instagram to inform and raise awareness in young adults about the importance of cultivating healthy and satisfying relationships. The posts provide definitions, statistics, and simplified scientific findings on a variety of topics related to the development of healthy relationships and issues commonly experienced by young adults. So far, we have disseminated content on sexual and relational satisfaction, constructive communication, violence, and the importance of support. We also aim to reach sexual and gender diverse populations, as some relational difficulties are more frequently experienced by these individuals7,8. Therefore, we have mobilized a team to address, among other things, sexual orientation, gender identity, and minority stress such as homophobia and discrimination9, which are specific stresses experienced by individuals from underrepresented groups.

Lions-nous is also a project that trains the next generation in knowledge mobilization! Since March 2023, we have recruited 35 psychology students from the University of Sherbrooke to work on content creation, and they have all completed training on the ground principles of knowledge mobilization. The dissemination methods used are slide shows (a series of images or videos scrolled through in a single post) and reels which consist of video clips illustrating key concepts related to the development and maintenance of relationships.

Since the project's launch, we have established several significant collaborations, including with the creators of the Instagram account lessexmaitresses and those of CRIPCAS. Our collaborators frequently share our content and invite their followers to follow us. We hope that our posts will encourage our audience to reflect on their relationships and adopt behaviors that promote healthy relationships, such as showing empathy and support. Stay tuned by subscribing to our account @labo_nous to see the results of our work!

In closing, the realization of this project would have been impossible without the collaboration of all the people who worked together to achieve it. In this regard, we would like to warmly thank:

• Audrey Brassard, our laboratory director, who is dedicated to promoting her students’ work and always brings her keen insights to the topics discussed.
• Anne-Sophie Gingras, our main collaborator and social media management expert who supported us in setting up the project.
• Our other project collaborators:
  • Katherine Péloquin, professor at the University of Montreal, an expert in intimate relationships.
  • Juliette François-Sévigny, a doctoral candidate in psychology at the University of Sherbrooke, expert in knowledge mobilization.
  • Éliane Dussault, a doctoral candidate in sexology at the University of Quebec in Montreal, expert in knowledge mobilization.
• Élodie Allain-Lamontagne, our graphic designer who provided us with superb visuals for our publications.
• Our content creation team.
• Our collaborators: les Sexmaitresses and the CRIPCAS team, including its student committee, the social media management team, and the researchers and postdoctoral fellows from CRIPCAS who participated in video interviews that will be broadcasted soon.
• Our wonderful subscribers.
• The Fonds de recherche du Québec, for granting us a subsidy as part of the Regards-ODD competition aimed at student initiatives seeking to engage and communicate with 18-30-year-olds on sustainable development goals, in this case, promoting good health and well-being.

The publication of this article was made possible thanks to our partner, the Interdisciplinary Research Centre on Intimate Relationship Problems and Sexual Abuse (CRIPCAS), and the Fonds de recherche du Québec. 

To cite this article: Lefebvre, A.-A., Gagné, A.-L., & Brassard, A. (2024, April 22). Connecting to cultivate healthy relationships. TRACE Blog. https://natachagodbout.com/en/blog/connecting-cultivate-healthy-relatio…

• 1Madsen, S. D., & Collins, W. A. (2018). Personal relationships in adolescence and early adulthood. In A. L. Vangelisti et D. Perlman (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of personal relationships (2nd ed., pp. 135-147). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316417867.012
• 2Pengpid, S., & Peltzer, K. (2021). Associations of loneliness with poor physical health, poor mental health and health risk behaviours among a nationally representative community-dwelling sample of middle-aged and older adults in India. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 36(11), 1722-1731. https://doi.org/10.1002/gps.5592
• 3Robles, T. F., Slatcher, R. B., Trombello, J. M., & McGinn, M. M. (2014). Marital quality and health: A meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 140(1), 140-187. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0031859
• 4Taylor, R. J., Chae, D. H., Lincoln, K. D., & Chatters, L. M. (2015). Extended family and friendship support networks are both protective and risk factors for major depressive disorder and depressive symptoms among African-Americans and black Caribbeans. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 203(2), 132-140. https://doi.org/10.1097/NMD.0000000000000249
• 5Weymouth, B. B., Fosco, G. M., Mak, H. W., Mayfield, K., LoBraico, E. J., & Feinberg, M. E. (2019). Implications of interparental conflict for adolescents’ peer relationships: A longitudinal pathway through threat appraisals and social anxiety symptoms. Developmental Psychology, 55(7), 1509-1522. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000731
• 6Nicolaisen, M., & Thorsen, K. (2017). What are friends for? Friendships and loneliness over the lifespan-from 18 to 79 Years. International Journal of Aging & Human Development, 84(2), 126-158. https://doi.org/10.1177/0091415016655166
• 7Tan, K. K. H., & Saw, A. T. W. (2023). Prevalence and correlates of mental health difficulties amongst LGBTQ people in Southeast Asia: A systematic review. Journal of Gay & Lesbian Mental Health, 27(4), 401-420. https://doi-org/10.1080/19359705.2022.2089427
• 8Williams, A. J., Jones, C., Arcelus, J., Townsend, E., Lazaridou, A., & Michail, M. (2021). A systematic review and meta-analysis of victimisation and mental health prevalence among LGBTQ+ young people with experiences of self-harm and suicide. PLoS ONE, 16(1). https://doi-org/10.1371/journal.pone.0245268
• 9Hatzenbuehler, M. L., & Pachankis, J. E. (2016). Stigma and minority stress as social determinants of health among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth: Research evidence and clinical implications. Pediatric Clinics of North America, 63(6), 985997. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pcl.2016.07.003