Suchergebnisse

Social capital provides access to material and personal resources through participation in social networks and other social structures. Social capital may not function equally for all populations, especially those living in residentially segregated urban neighborhoods with increased levels of poverty. This is because inequalities exist in social capital accumulation and are found where disadvantaged socioeconomic groups cluster. Using probabilistic household survey data consisting of 205 Puerto Rican mothers in Springfield, Massachusetts in 2013, this research tests hypotheses regarding the association of social capital accumulation with Puerto Rican mothers' individual, neighborhood, and social network characteristics. Logistic regression results suggested that Puerto Rican mothers who were employed and lived in neighborhoods with other Latinos were more likely to accumulate social capital. In addition, mothers who participated in activities of their children also had increased social capital accumulation. This neighborhood effect on social capital accumulation may promote bonding social capital but not bridging social capital among these Puerto Rican mothers.

Social capital research rarely separates interpersonal networks of reciprocity from trust (a characteristic of some relationships) or civic group participation and has generally ignored Portes's call to investigate determinants, rather than effects, of social capital. Employing data from a survey of randomly selected households of Mexican immigrants, the authors estimate how individual characteristics (including legal status and participation in civic groups) and various neighborhood-level socioeconomic factors influenced the probability of having had social capital—defined parsimoniously as having helped (or having been helped by) someone within one's family or friendship network when in need. Results suggest that higher educated, employed males residing in more densely populated neighborhoods with higher levels of homeownership were more likely to have engaged in such reciprocal exchange. Surprisingly, those who attended at least one labor union meeting during the previous year were less likely. Participation in other civic groups and unauthorized residency status appear to have had no effect.

Purpose Parents play a critical decision-making role in vaccinating their children against human papillomavirus (HPV), and mothers, in particular, are key stakeholders as they are often the parent taking their children to healthcare visits. Given the importance of the HPV vaccination as a cancer prevention strategy, this study was designed to explore Latinx mothers' suggested strategies to promote vaccine uptake among Latinx parents. Setting and Participants Community-based in Massachusetts, United States, and Latinx mothers. Design and Methods Descriptive qualitative research employing individual semi-structured interviews. Data were analyzed using a hybrid method of thematic analysis incorporating deductive and inductive approaches. Results Twenty-two, majority foreign-born (91%) Latinx mothers of adolescent girls (∼60%) and boys (∼40%) aged 11–19 years participated. Mothers suggested several strategies to promote uptake of the HPV vaccine among Latinx families including healthcare providers' increased communication and anticipatory guidance addressing factors influencing parents' HPV vaccination hesitancy, and improved community-wide dissemination of culturally and linguistically relevant information targeting not only parents of age-eligible participants but the broader community. Finally, mothers suggested the use of social media using personal narratives and an enhanced active role of schools in providing accurate information to raise awareness and educate adolescents and parents about the importance of HPV vaccination. Conclusion Findings are relevant to the development of tailored interventions to meet the needs of Latinx populations, and ultimately increase Latinx children's HPV vaccination rates.

Declining social capital is one explanation for lower response to household surveys. By intentionally developing an awareness of social capital among its interviewers, the Por Ahí Dicen research study encouraged the use of interviewer social capital as a mechanism to achieve a response rate of 65.2 percent for baseline and post-intervention household studies of Puerto Rican mothers ( n = 413). These surveys were conducted in a "hard-to-count" urban environment designated by the U.S. Census Bureau. The interviewer trainings highlighted three domains of social capital: reciprocity and generalized trust, group or social cohesion, and cultural affirmation. By stressing the importance of social capital as an engagement tool, interviewers more easily made research participation salient and successfully leveraged Puerto Rican mothers' participation in the community study.