INSNA Conference morning sessions

Neighborhood norms of Reciprocity, Netwrok Social Capital and Depressive symptoms.

 

Valerie Haines presented this unique study that examined health care, and how neighborhoods helped themselves stay connected to mental health care in particular surrounding depressive symptoms. The study looked at 32 neighborhoods in a mid sized southern city. They study employed phone and personal interviews. The study was looking at Network social capital – the ability and capacity to get members of the network the capital and access they need. The questions looked at perception of how willing neighbors were to be of help. The research questioned a set of resources including education, health care, and employment resources. The studies overall state that perceived support is more important than received support.

 

The study found that the access to social capital impacts depressive systems. Moreover the study team did conduct a study in

New Orleans

pre-Katrina and they plan to return to follow up, now that a good amount of the network social capital has been eroded by the storm and ensuing population change.

 

 

Mass Media Programming and Contraceptive use in

Nepal

Marc Boulay

 

The study evaluated the personal network for injunctive (active) and Descriptive norms (passive) around birth control. So the study looked at if these norms influenced birth control adoption and how. This is a significant research as it addresses basic personal network power to persuade an individual health choice. As a matter of research it shows that if a majority (51%) of your network uses contraceptive then you are 90% more likely to do so. Moreover there was an additive effect (sum is greater than the parts) when there was injunctive and descriptive norms in individual’s personal network. As a matter of research those who listened to the radio serials that discussed birth control, and then participated in a discussion group, were much more likely to have a favorable opinion of contraceptive.

 

Social network activities in Health Promoting Schools in Thiland

 

The WHO identifies

Health

Promoting

School

as an effective methodology to develop effective education system within countries.

Thailand

began the HPS in 1988. The study looks at networks of Gold standard quality (as measured by 10 metrics set by the Thai education department) and Bronze schools. The researcher looked at the difference between the network structure of the school population using survey questions and UCINet for analysis.  One of the questions that was posed in the discussion was if a segregated group that appeared on the network map were the smokers.

 

How Does network Structure impact performance – On Water Collection and Utilization

Water collectives serve about 850 K households with some cooperative being as small as 40 houses and some being as large as 50,000 houses. The cooperative managers were a key subject in the study. The study looked at how do different networks address the low income household need for water. Part of the intrigue is that water cooperatives serve a wide range of socio economic homes from lean-toos to million dollar mansions. Social networks of the water managers as well as the social pressures are key to keeping the water on to all homes. Formal affiliation with a national water management organization or another national league did not have a significant impact on the performance of the water cooperative.