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.
