Neighborhood differences in social capital: a compositional artifact or a contextual construct?

Assessment of social capital at the neighborhood level is often based on aggregating individual perceptions of trust and reciprocity. Individual perceptions, meanwhile, are influenced through a range of individual attributes. This paper examines the socioeconomic and demographic attributes that systematically correlate with individual perception of social capital and determines the extent to which such attributes account for neighborhood differences in social capital. Using improved multilevel modeling procedures, we ascertain the extent to which differences in social capital perception can be ascribed to true neighborhood-level variations. The analysis is based on the 1994-95 Community Survey of the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN). The response measure is based on survey respondent's perceptions of whether people in their neighborhood can be trusted. The results suggest that even after accounting for individual demographic (age, sex, race, marital status) and socioeconomic characteristics (income, education), significant neighborhood differences remain in individual perceptions of trust, substantiating the notion of social capital as a true contextual construct.     

The Association of Individual and Neighborhood Social Cohesion,Stressors, and Crime on Smoking Status Among African-American Women in Southeastern US Subsidized Housing Neighborhoods

The purpose of this study was to examine the associations between individual and neighborhood social contextual factors and smoking prevalence among African-American women in subsidized neighborhoods. We randomly sampled 663 adult women in 17 subsidized neighborhoods in two Southeastern US states. The smoking prevalence among participants was 37.6 %, with an estimated neighborhood household prevalence ranging from 30 to 68 %. Smokers were more likely to be older, have lower incomes, have lower BMI, and live with other smokers. Women with high social cohesion were less likely to smoke, although living in neighborhoods with higher social cohesion was not associated with smoking prevalence. Women with higher social cohesion were more likely to be older and had lived in the neighborhood longer. Women with high stress (related to violence and disorder) and who lived in neighborhoods with higher stress were more likely to smoke. Younger women were more likely to have higher stress than older women. There were no statistically significant associations with objective neighborhood crime data in any model. This is the first study to examine both individual and neighborhood social contextual correlates among African-American women in subsidized neighborhoods. This study extends findings about smoking behaviors and neighborhood social contexts in this high-risk, urban population. Future research is needed to explore age and residential stability differences and perceptions of social cohesion, neighborhood disorder, and perceived violence in subsidized housing. Further research is also warranted on African-American women, subsidized housing, smoking, social context, health disparities’ effective strategies to address these individual and contextual factors to better inform future ecological-based multilevel prevention, and cessation intervention strategies.     

Comparison of a spatial perspective with the multilevel analytical approach in neighborhood studies: the case of mental and behavioral disorders due to psychoactive substance use in Malmo, Sweden, 2001

Most studies of neighborhood effects on health have used the multilevel approach. However, since this methodology does not incorporate any notion of space, it may not provide optimal epidemiologic information when modeling variations or when investigating associations between contextual factors and health. Investigating mental disorders due to psychoactive substance use among all 65,830 individuals aged 40-59 years in 2001 in Malm?, Sweden, geolocated at their place of residence, the authors compared a spatial analytical perspective, which builds notions of space into hypotheses and methods, with the multilevel approach. Geoadditive models provided precise cartographic information on spatial variations in prevalence independent of administrative boundaries. The multilevel model showed significant neighborhood variations in the prevalence of substance-related disorders. However, hierarchical geostatistical models provided information on not only the magnitude but also the scale of neighborhood variations, indicating a significant correlation between neighborhoods in close proximity to each other. The prevalence of disorders increased with neighborhood deprivation. Far stronger associations were observed when using indicators measured in spatially adaptive areas, centered on residences of individuals, smaller in size than administrative neighborhoods. In neighborhood studies, building notions of space into analytical procedures may yield more comprehensive information than heretofore has been gathered on the spatial distribution of outcomes.     

Social capital and neighborhood mortality rates in Chicago

Several empirical studies have suggested that neighborhood characteristics influence health, with most studies having focused on neighborhood deprivation or aspects of the physical environment, such as services and amenities. However, such physical characteristics are not the only features of neighborhoods that potentially affect health. Neighborhoods also matter because of the nature of their social organization. This study examined social capital as a potential neighborhood characteristic influencing health. Using a cross-sectional study design which linked counts of death for persons 45-64 years by race and sex to neighborhood indicators of social capital and poverty for 342 Chicago neighborhoods in the USA, we tested the ecological association between neighborhood-level social capital and mortality rates, taking advantage of the community survey data collected as part of the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods. We estimated a hierarchical generalized linear model to examine the association of race and sex specific mortality rates to social capital. Overall, neighborhood social capital-as measured by reciprocity, trust, and civic participation-was associated with lower neighborhood death rates, after adjustment for neighborhood material deprivation. Specifically, higher levels of neighborhood social capital were associated with lower neighborhood death rates for total mortality as well as death from heart disease and "other" causes for White men and women and, to a less consistent extent, for Blacks. However, there was no association between social capital and cancer mortality. Although, the findings from this study extend the state-level findings linking social capital to health to the level of neighborhoods, much work remains to be carried out before social capital can be widely applied to improve population health, including establishing standards of measurement, and exploring the potential "downsides" of social capital.     

Pre-COVID-19 cognitive social capital and peri-COVID-19 depression: A prospective cohort study on the contextual moderating effect of the COVID-19 pandemic in China, 2016–2020

Social capital could protect mental health. We examined whether the COVID-19 context and province-level COVID-19 situation altered the longitudinal association between cognitive social capital (generalized trust, trust in neighbors, trust in local government officials, and reciprocity) and depression. Results from multilevel mixed-effects linear regression models showed that trust in neighbors, trust in local government officials, and reciprocity were more crucial in longitudinally reducing depression in 2020 than in 2018. Also, as compared with provinces where the COVID-19 situation was less poor, trust in local government officials in 2018 was more crucial in reducing depression in 2020 in provinces with a worse COVID-19 situation. Therefore, cognitive social capital should be taken into account for pandemic preparedness and mental health resilience.     

Gender differences in relationships between social capital and individual smoking and drinking behavior in Taiwan

Despite the concept of social capital receiving great attention in the area of health research, few studies have analyzed the differential effects of social capital between genders. This article assesses gender differences in the relationships between social capital and smoking and drinking behavior in Taiwan. Data on individual sociodemographic characteristics, smoking, drinking, and social capital were obtained from the Taiwan Social Change Survey conducted in 1995 and in 2000. The overall response rate was 67%. In total, 3713 women and men aged over 20 years living in 204 neighborhoods were interviewed. Social capital indicators were aggregated at the neighborhood level, and included neighborhood closeness, political influence, social contact, social trust, and social participation. The data were analyzed with multilevel binomial regression models. Gender differences were found in some aspects of social capital. Stronger effects of social trust on smoking were found for women than for men, whereas stronger effects of neighborhood closeness on drinking were found for women than for men. Social participation was positively associated with drinking in both genders. The findings of this study provide new evidence for the differential effects of social capital by gender in Taiwan, suggesting that more studies are needed to understand social capital's effects in Asian societies and the mechanisms by which the effects may vary with gender.     

Social trust and self-rated health in US communities: a multilevel analysis

This study assessed the contextual and individual effects of social trust on health. Methods consisted of a multilevel regression analysis of self-rated poor health among 21,456 individuals nested within 40 US communities included in the 2000 Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey. Controlling for demographic covariates, a strong income and education gradient was observed for self-rated health. Higher levels of cominunity social trust were associated with a lover probability of reporting poor health. Individual demographic and socioeconomic preditors did not explain the association of community social trust with self-rated health. Controlling for individual trust perception, however, rendered the main effect of community social trust statistically insignificant, but a complex interaction effect was observed, such that the health-promoting effect of community social trust was significantly greater for high-trust individuals. For low-trust individuals, the effect of community social trust on self-rated health was the opposite. Using the latest data available on community social trust, we conclude that the role of community social trust in explaining average population health achievements and health inequalities is complex and is contingent on individual perceptions of social trust. Future multilevel investigations of social capital and population health should routinely consider the cross-level nature of community or neighborbood effects.     

Does low workplace social capital have detrimental effect on workers' health?

While the majority of studies of social capital and health have focused on conceptualizing social capital at the geographic level, evidence remains sparse on workplace social capital. We examined the association between workplace social capital and health status among Japanese private sector employees in a cross-sectional study. By employing a two-stage stratified random sampling procedure, 1147 employees were identified from 46 companies in Okayama in 2007. Workplace social capital was measured based on two components; trust and reciprocity. Company-level social capital was based on aggregating employee responses and calculating the proportion of workers reporting mistrust and lack of reciprocity. Multilevel logistic regression analysis was conducted using Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods to explore whether individual- and company-level mistrust and lack of reciprocity were associated with poor self-rated health. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% credible intervals (CIs) for poor health were obtained for each variable. Workers reporting individual-level mistrust and lack of reciprocity had approximately double the odds of poor health even after controlling for sex, age, occupation, educational attainment, smoking, alcohol use, physical activity, body mass index, and chronic diseases. While we found some suggestion of a contextual association between company-level mistrust and poor health, no association was found between company-level lack of reciprocity and health. Despite the thorough examination of cross-level interaction terms between company-level social capital and individual characteristics, no clear patterns were observed. Individual perceptions of mistrust and lack of reciprocity at work have adverse effects on self-rated health among Japanese workers. Although the present study possibly suggests the contextual effect of workplace mistrust on workers' health, the contextual effect of workplace lack of reciprocity was not supported.     

Neighborhood social capital and individual health

Neighborhood social capital is increasingly considered to be an important determinant of an individual's health. Using data from the Netherlands we investigate the influence of neighborhood social capital on an individual's self-reported health, while accounting for other conditions of health on both the level of the neighborhood and the individual. We use national representative data ('The Housing and Living Survey', 2006) on the Netherlands with 61,235 respondents in 3273 neighborhoods. The cross-sectional data were combined with information provided by Statistics Netherlands on neighborhoods, i.e., the percentage of residents in the highest income quintile per neighborhood and the municipality's degree of urbanity. The association of neighborhood social capital with individual health was assessed by multilevel logistic regression analysis. Our results show that neighborhood social capital is positively associated with health. Interestingly, residents in urban neighborhoods benefit particularly from their neighborhood social capital.     

Neighborhood economic conditions, social processes, and self-rated health in low-income neighborhoods in Texas: a multilevel latent variables model

This paper develops and tests a comprehensive model to explain the relationships of neighborhood economic indicators to multiple dimensions of neighborhood social and physical organization as well as the pathways through which neighborhood social and physical characteristics influence individual health outcomes. We hypothesized that neighborhood poverty would be associated with lower collective efficacy, lower social capital, higher degrees of social and physical disorder, worse social processes pertaining to children such as trust, and higher degrees of fear of crime and racism. Neighborhood social and physical characteristics were hypothesized to mediate the effect of neighborhood poverty on self-rated health, both directly and indirectly through their influence on neighborhood differences in social support and health behaviors, which in turn affect individual health. The results, based on data from low-income neighborhoods in Texas, USA generally supported the model and indicated that the effect of neighborhood impoverishment on health is mediated by social and physical neighborhood characteristics.     

Neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation,perceived neighborhood factors,and cortisol responses to induced stress among healthy adults

Associations between measures of neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation and health have been identified, yet work is needed to uncover explanatory mechanisms. One hypothesized pathway is through stress, yet the few studies that have evaluated associations between characteristics of deprived neighborhoods and biomarkers of stress are mixed. This study evaluated whether objectively measured neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation and individual perceived neighborhood characteristics (i.e. social control and fear of crime) impacted cortisol responses to an induced stressor among older healthy adults. Data from Heart Scan, a sub-study of the Whitehall II cohort, were used to generate multilevel piecewise growth-curve models of cortisol trajectories after a laboratory stressor accounting for neighborhood and demographic characteristics. Neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation was significantly associated with individual perceptions of social control and fear of crime in the neighborhood while an association with blunted cortisol reactivity was only evidence among women. Social control was significantly associated with greater cortisol reactivity and mediation between neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation and cortisol reactivity was suggested among women. These findings support a gender-dependent role of neighborhood in stress process models of health.     

Proximate and contextual socioeconomic determinants of mortality: multilevel approaches in a setting with universal health care coverage

Investigations of contextual factors (income inequality, cultural disruption, access to health and social services, safety and crime rate, and others) have received little emphasis by epidemiologists, although a few have demonstrated the importance of such factors for mortality, particularly in the United States. To expand current understanding of the importance of contextual factors, the authors evaluated mortality in a longitudinal study in Nova Scotia, Canada, where all residents have greater access to health and social services and where income inequalities are smaller than in the United States. A total of 2,116 participants were followed from 1990 through December 1999, linked to the 1991 Canada Census as a source of neighborhood characteristics, and analyzed using individual-level and multilevel logistic regression. Well-educated and high-earning persons fared better. Neighborhood socioeconomic characteristics (neighborhood income, educational level, unemployment rate), in contrast, were not significantly associated with mortality. However, within advantaged neighborhoods, the importance of individual income and education for mortality was increased relative to disadvantaged neighborhoods. The latter findings may direct health policy aimed at reducing health inequalities.     

Social capital and the built environment: the importance of walkable neighborhoods

OBJECTIVES: I sought to examine whether pedestrian-oriented, mixed-use neighborhoods encourage enhanced levels of social and community engagement (i.e., social capital). METHODS: The study investigated the relationship between neighborhood design and individual levels of social capital. Data were obtained from a household survey that measured the social capital of citizens living in neighborhoods that ranged from traditional, mixed-use, pedestrian-oriented designs to modern, car-dependent suburban subdivisions in Galway, Ireland. RESULTS: The analyses indicate that persons living in walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods have higher levels of social capital compared with those living in car-oriented suburbs. Respondents living in walkable neighborhoods were more likely to know their neighbors, participate politically, trust others, and be socially engaged. CONCLUSIONS: Walkable, mixed-use neighborhood designs can encourage the development of social capital.     

从创新扩散视角看优质医疗资源扩容影响因素——基于中国胸痛中心建设的实证研究

目的：本研究在创新扩散理论视角下,分析中国胸痛中心扩散影响因素,为优质医疗资源扩容提供参考依据。方法：收集我国大陆地区31个省级行政区2014—2022年胸痛中心面板数据,以随机效应模型和固定效应模型为基本模型,创新运用空间杜宾模型,定量分析我国胸痛中心建设创新扩散影响因素。结果：固定效应模型与空间杜宾模型结果保持一致。公众需求没有对胸痛中心采用率产生显著影响,政策支持、经济水平、城镇化水平均对胸痛中心采用率产生正向影响。空间杜宾模型进一步证实了公共服务创新扩散存在邻近效应。结论：建议市县各级卫生健康行政部门对辖区胸痛中心建设予以政策支持。采取输送技术、结对帮扶等方式,提高经济发展水平较低地区胸痛中心建设成功率。通过学术会议、交流培训等方式改善农村地区学术信息滞后、信息茧房现状。     

Social capital and core network ties: a validation study of individual-level social capital measures and their association with extra- and intra-neighborhood ties, and self-rated health

Research on social capital and health has assumed that measures of trust, participation, and perceived cohesion capture aspects of people's neighborhood social connections. This study uses data on the personal networks of 2707 Montreal adults in 300 different neighborhoods to examine the association of socio-demographic and social capital variables with the likelihood of having core ties, core neighborhood ties, and high self-rated health (SRH). Persons with higher household income were more likely to have core ties, but less likely to have core neighborhood ties. Persons with greater diversity in extra-neighborhood network capital were more likely to have core ties, and persons with greater diversity in intra-neighborhood network capital were more likely to have core neighborhood ties. Generalized trust, perceived neighborhood cohesion, and extra-neighborhood network diversity were shown associated with high SRH. Conventional measures of social capital may not capture network mechanisms. Findings suggest a critical appraisal of the mechanisms linking social capital and health, and the further delineation of network and psychosocial mechanisms in understanding these links.     

Local services and amenities, neighborhood social capital, and health

Recent work on health and place has examined the impact of the environment on health. At the local level, research has followed several strands, such as contextual effects of neighborhoods, the impact of differential access to services and amenities, effects of a neighborhood's collective efficacy, and the relationship between social capital and health. Of these four approaches, social capital has generated the most debate; some scholars discuss social capital as a key epidemiological variable, while others discount or dismiss its utility. We undertook this research to assess whether the concept of social capital could increase our understanding of the impact of neighborhoods on residents' health. We utilized key informant interviews and focus groups to understand ways in which residents of diverse neighborhoods in one large California city perceived that their local communities were affecting health. We argue in this paper that using the term "social capital" to discuss social resources and their mobilization in a particular neighborhood highlights the ways in which social resources can vary in relation to economic resources, and that residents of neighborhoods with differing levels of services and amenities face different issues when mobilizing to improve their neighborhoods. Additionally, the projects that people invest in vary by neighborhood socioeconomic status. We draw on the paired concepts of "bridging" and "bonding" social capital, and discuss that while stores of bonding social capital may be more uniform across neighborhoods of varying SES, bridging social capital tends to be found in greater amounts in neighborhoods of higher SES which allows them greater success when mobilizing to improve their neighborhoods.     

Neighborhood Poverty and Maternal Fears of Children's Outdoor Play

Investigating children's outdoor play unites scholarship on neighborhoods, parental perceptions of safety, and children's health. Utilizing the Fragile Families and Child Well-being Study (N=3,448), we examine mothers' fear of their five-year-old children playing outdoors, testing associations with neighborhood social characteristics, city-level crime rates, maternal mental health, and social support. Living in public housing, perceptions of low neighborhood collective efficacy, and living in a Census tract with a higher proportion of Blacks and households in poverty are associated with higher odds of maternal fear, but crime rates are not a significant predictor of fear. We also demonstrate that not being depressed - but not social support or collective efficacy - buffers the influence of neighborhood poverty on maternal fears of outdoor play.     

Social capital at work as a predictor of employee health: multilevel evidence from work units in Finland

The majority of previous research on social capital and health is limited to social capital in residential neighborhoods and communities. Using data from the Finnish 10-Town study we examined social capital at work as a predictor of health in a cohort of 9524 initially healthy local government employees in 1522 work units, who did not change their work unit between 2000 and 2004 and responded to surveys measuring social capital at work and health at both time-points. We used a validated tool to measure social capital with perceptions at the individual level and with co-workers' responses at the work unit level. According to multilevel modeling, a contextual effect of work unit social capital on self-rated health was not accounted for by the individual's socio-demographic characteristics or lifestyle. The odds for health impairment were 1.27 times higher for employees who constantly worked in units with low social capital than for those with constantly high work unit social capital. Corresponding odds ratios for low and declining individual-level social capital varied between 1.56 and 1.78. Increasing levels of individual social capital were associated with sustained good health. In conclusion, this longitudinal multilevel study provides support for the hypothesis that exposure to low social capital at work may be detrimental to the health of employees.     

Social capital and self-rated health: a contextual analysis.

OBJECTIVES: Social capital consists of features of social organization--such as trust between citizens, norms of reciprocity, and group membership--that facilitate collective action. This article reports a contextual analysis of social capital and individual self-rated health, with adjustment for individual household income, health behaviors, and other covariates. METHODS: Self-rated health ("Is your overall health excellent, very good, good, fair, or poor?") was assessed among 167,259 individuals residing in 39 US states, sampled by the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. Social capital indicators, aggregated to the state level, were obtained from the General Social Surveys. RESULTS: Individual-level factors (e.g., low income, low education, smoking) were strongly associated with self-rated poor health. However, even after adjustment for these proximal variables, a contextual effect of low social capital on risk of self-rated poor health was found. For example, the odds ratio for fair or poor health associated with living in areas with the lowest levels of social trust was 1.41 (95% confidence interval = 1.33, 1.50) compared with living in high-trust states. CONCLUSIONS: These results extend previous findings on the health advantages stemming from social capital.     

Neighborhood violent crime and unemployment increase the risk of coronary heart disease: a multilevel study in an urban setting

Little is known about the association between neighborhood social disorganization and coronary heart disease (CHD). This study used the theoretical frameworks of the Chicago school and the Stirling County group in order to analyze the impact of neighborhood violent crime and neighborhood unemployment on CHD in an urban setting, the capital of Sweden. The entire population of Stockholm County aged 35-64 years on January 1, 1998 was included in the study. All individuals were followed for CHD until December 31, 1998. Small area neighborhood units were used to define neighborhoods. The neighborhood-level variables were calculated as rates of violent crime or unemployment in the small area neighborhood units, categorized in quintiles. Multilevel logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios and neighborhood-level variance in three different models. When rates of neighborhood violent crime or neighborhood unemployment increased, the risk of CHD increased among both women and men. In neighborhoods with the highest rates of violent crime (quintile 5), the odds ratios were 1.75 (CI=1.37-2.22) and 1.39 (CI=1.19-1.63) for women and men, respectively. In neighborhoods with the highest unemployment rates, the corresponding odds ratios were 2.05 (CI=1.62-2.59) and 1.50 (CI=1.28-1.75). These average neighborhood effects on CHD (fixed effects) remained almost unaltered after inclusion of the individual-level variables. The neighborhood-level variance indicated significant differences in CHD between neighborhoods, and the neighborhood-level and individual-level variables partly explained the variance between neighborhoods (random effects). Public safety and social stability in socially disorganized neighborhoods need to be improved in order to promote cardiovascular health.