an exploration of the challenges to be addressed if government policies to promote community engagement are to be genuinely inclusive of newcomers as well as more established communities.
research has shown that in socially fragmented neighbourhoods, people at risk of schizophrenia are less likely to receive the support they need to prevent them from developing psychosis.
international youth day will be held on august 12 and it returns on an extremely crucial point for cities: the active integration and participation of young people in social dynamics. why is it so important?
background neighborhood social cohesion (nsc) is the network of relationships as well as the shared values and norms of residents in a neighborhood. higher nsc has been associated with improved cardiovascular health, largely among whites but not african americans. in a bi-racial cohort, we aimed to study the association between nsc and chronic disease awareness and engagement in healthy self-management behaviors, two potential mechanisms by which nsc could impact cardiovascular health outcomes. methods using the healthy aging in neighborhoods of diversity across the lifespan study (handls), we cross-sectionally examined the association between nsc and awareness of three chronic conditions (diabetes, chronic kidney disease (ckd), and hypertension) and engagement in healthy self-management behaviors including physical activity, healthy eating, and cigarette avoidance. results study participants (n = 2082) had a mean age of 56.5 years; 38.7% were white and 61.4% african american. of the participants, 26% had diabetes, 70% had hypertension and 20.2% had ckd. mean nsc was 3.3 (sd = 0.80) on a scale of 1 (lowest score) to 5 (highest score). there was no significant association between nsc and any chronic disease awareness, overall or by race. however, each higher point in mean nsc score was associated with less cigarette use and healthier eating scores, among whites (adjusted odds ratio [aor], 95% confidence interval [ci]: =0.76, 0.61–0.94; beta coefficient [βc]:, 95% ci: 1.75; 0.55–2.97, respectively) but not african americans (aor = 0.95, 0.79–1.13; βc: 0.46, − 0.48–1.39, respectively; pinteraction = 0.08 and 0.06). among both whites and african americans, higher nsc scores were associated with increases in self-reported physical activity (βc: 0.12; 0.08–0.16; pinteraction = 0.40). conclusions community engagement and neighborhood social cohesion may be important targets for promotion of healthy behaviors and cardiovascular disease prevention. more research is needed to understand the different associations of nsc and healthy behaviors by race.
this paper takes as its starting point the interdependency of housing and neighbourhood and through a multiscalar perspective explores a tension between heterogeneity and cohesion in the arenas of housing and neighbourhood. first, it discusses
the purpose of this study was to determine if social cohesion mediates the effects of neighborhood and household-level socioeconomic status (ses), perceptions of neighborhood safety, and access to parks on mothers’ engagement in physical activity ...
united states research concludes concentrations of latinos/latinas and african americans have a negative impact on neighborhood social cohesion (nsc); however, european research finds higher levels of nsc when controlling for measures of concentrated disadvantage. this study utilizes a longitudinal stratified random sample of 7,495 households in 430 census blocks within 10 united states cities that participated in the making connections initiative. results show higher nsc is associated with higher percentages of residents who are latino/latina, african american, and homeowners when controlling for measures of concentrated disadvantage. the study findings challenge the stigma associated with concentrations of racial minorities in neighborhoods.
someone's health, finances and other individual factors impact their wellbeing. but their environment (open spaces, community) also matters.
defining and measuring community cohesion will be tricky but we must try. stephen muers looks at its history and how we can define it in the future
to examine the role of neighborhood social conditions and walking in community-dwelling older adults. a multi-level analysis of data from 4,317 older adults (mean age = 74.5; 73% black) from a geographically-defined urban community. participants ...
findings from wave 4 of a telephone survey we commissioned to better understand the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on people in scotland
running any of these events will help develop cohesion in your local community. we’ve graded each event to show:
with the first of this year’s tedxbrayford pool salon’s about making a 22nd-century city on the horizon, which explores the theme of place, we look at the concept of community cohesion and its importance in creating cities of the future. so, what is community cohesion?community cohesion refers to the level of connectedness and sense of belonging among individuals in a given community and is vital for the development of a healthy and sustainable society. the sense of belonging is an essential par
preventing chronic disease (pcd) is a peer-reviewed electronic journal established by the national center for chronic disease prevention and health promotion. pcd provides an open exchange of information and knowledge among researchers, practitioners, policy makers, and others who strive to improve the health of the public through chronic disease prevention.
despite longstanding ideas in sociology and related disciplines that hold rural life as being more communal and harmonious, little is known about the ways that social cohesion is defined or distributed in rural versus urban places. stemming largely from scholarship on urban neighborhood inequality and concentrated disadvantage, as well as subsequent offshoots of collective efficacy theory, studies of place-based cohesion have been largely urban-centric. in this study we seek to examine whether cohesion varies significantly across rural and urban contexts and whether place-based poverty is related to cohesion similarly in each context. we expand beyond local studies to use data from the 2016 missouri crime victimization survey (n = 1873), which contains strong rural and urban samples, and is broadly representative of the state of missouri—a state in which the population is approximately 30 percent rural—to examine these questions. descriptive statistics show the social cohesion index, neighbors’ willingness to help, and perceptions of them being close knit and trusted as being significantly higher in rural communities, but that perceptions that neighbors get along and share the same values did not significantly differ. local poverty significantly predicted one item, trust, in rural communities and the cohesion index and all of its components in urban communities. after including controls, coefficients on poverty retained significance for trust in rural communities and for four of six outcomes in urban ones, but they did not differ significantly across groups in equality of coefficients tests. poverty was most strongly and consistently associated with perceptions of trust in both locales. results contribute to a more refined understanding of the ways that social cohesion is conceptualized in different places, and the extent to which poverty plays into residents’ perceptions.
definition and purpose of community cohesion index (cci) the community cohesion index (cci) is a statistical measure that is used
neighbourhood cohesion is a concept describing the residents’ sense of community, engagement in acts of neighbouring, and attractiveness of living in the neighbourhood. since 2000’s the term ‘cohesion’ has also been used in geography and in spatial policy to represent the distribution of functions and opportunities in space. the two approaches seem be complementary, but they lack consistency and appropriate conceptual framework. this paper aims at developing an integrated methodological framework which will include both social and spatial aspects of cohesion at the local level. its empirical content refers to studies conducted in 2017–2019 in five locations in poland. three methods of spatial analysis are presented depicting various aspects of territorial cohesion of a neighbourhood: functional balance, accessibility of facilities and match between supply and demand. such approach enables effective measurement and comparison of neighbourhoods representing various settlement types. the results show that the highest levels of cohesion were obtained for large cities where the density of amenities is the highest, and the lowest levels were noted in suburban settlements which confirms their malfunctioning character. the paper concludes with a critical revision of the concept of neighbourhood cohesion which can serve as a guideline for local urban policy.