Do social frontiers matter for depression?

Social frontiers – abrupt borders between communities – may heighten territorial and defensive behaviour, reduce opportunities for positive contact between groups, and exacerbate the sense of outgroup threat, resulting in a negative impact on mental health for residents living in neighbourhoods bounded by social frontiers. Previous research on the links between residential segregation and mental health has largely ignored the effect of social frontiers. To study the association between social frontiers and mental health we link Place Based Longitudinal Data Resource data on the numbers of depression diagnoses and antidepressant drugs prescribed by GPs with estimates of ethnic and religious social frontiers produced from the 2011 and 2021 Census for all Lower Super Output Areas in England. These estimates are produced from spatial binomial / Poisson models that allow for spatial autocorrelation via a simultaneous autoregressive (SAR) type structure. We find strong and consistent evidence of an association between the prevalence of mental health problems at the neighbourhood level (Lower Super Output Areas) in England and the intensity of social frontiers for particular ethnic (Chinese, Indian, Pakistani, White British) and religious (Hindu, Jewish, Muslim) groups. For example, in 2021 depression rates were between 1% and 67% higher for every 10% point increase in the intensity of social frontiers between Pakistani and non-Pakistani residents. Living in an area segregated by social frontiers is potentially detrimental to mental health. These results demonstrate the importance of understanding the role of community boundaries when considering the links between segregation and wellbeing.