goodmedicine

Personal social networks are hugely important for our health & wellbeing, as I've underlined in the first of this six post sequence - "Personal social networks (1st post): Dunbar's 5-15-50-150 model".  However our personal networks are also regularly affected by conflicts, especially with those we're close to.  It's not a surprise - if you're very close to someone, it's likely you'll sometimes step on each other's toes.  Here are a set of four slides that illustrate this point:

And relationships conflicts have significant effects - for example, see in the slide below how important interpersonal events are in triggering depression:

... and it's no accident that the widely supported treatment Interpersonal psychotherapy treats conflict as one of its major areas of focus:

And Couples Work as well has plenty to say on how we might helpfully approach conflict:

Also very relevant here are the series of posts "Conflict: not too much, not too little - some research suggestions", "Conflict: not too much, not too little - and how to make it constructive", "Conflict: not too much, not too little - the importance of assertiveness in close relationships", "Conflict: not too much, not too little - when to get real & problem solve in close relationships" and "Conflict: not too much, not too little - insights from game theory".