Archives
Civic Engagement, Gender and Self-Rated Health in Poor Communities
Evidence from Jordan's refugee camps
Marwan Khawaja
Centre for Research on Population and Health, American University of Beirut, Lebanon
Mylene Tewtel-Salem
Centre for Research on Population and Health, American University of Beirut, Lebanon
Maya Obeid
Centre for Research on Population and Health, American University of Beirut, Lebanon
Matilda Saliba
Centre for Research on Population and Health, American University of Beirut, Lebanon
Abstract
This paper examines the association between civic engagement and self-rated health among a sample of adults living in refugee camps in Jordan. The analysis is based on a cross-sectional sample survey of all households residing in Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan, and interviewed in the spring and summer of 1999. The outcome variable is self-rated health. Associations between civic engagement and self-rated health are assessed using ?2 tests and logistic regression models.
Findings from a logistic regression model show that civic engagement, as measured primarily by membership in clubs and other civic groups, has a significant association with self-rated health net of the effects of demographic, human capital and health risk factors. The final model shows that the effects of control variables are in the anticipated direction, with age, marital status, health risk, education and poverty statistically significant. However, the findings pertaining to civic engagement hold for men but not women.
We conclude that civic engagement is a powerful and significant predictor of self-rated health status among refugee men living in poor communities, but not for women. Low literacy and persisting patriarchy may account for the non-significant association between civic engagement and health status among women in this context.
Keywords
civic engagement, gender, self-rated health, refugees, Jordan, sociology
References
Abdallah SL (1995) Palestinian women in the camps of Jordan: Interviews. Journal of Palestine Studies 24(4):62-72.
Arneberg M (1997) Living Conditions among Palestinian Refugees and Displaced in Jordan, Fafo: Oslo, Norway.
Ashton JR and Alvarez-Dardet C (2003) A winter miscellany of cycling, sport, social capital, and epidemiology. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 57(2):81.
Aye M, Champagne F and Contandriopoulos AP (2002) Economic role of solidarity and social capital in accessing modern health care services in the Ivory Coast. Social Science and Medicine 55(11):1929-1946.
Baum FE and Ziersch AM (2003) A glossary of social capital. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 57:320-323.
Bourdieu P (1986) The forms of capital. In Richardson G (ed) The Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education, Greenwood Press: New York: 241-258.
Bourdieu P (1993) Sociology in Question, Sage: London.
Brunner E and Marmot M (1999) Social organization, stress and health. In Marmot M and Wilkinson R (eds) Social Determinants of Health, Oxford University Press: New York: 17-43.
Buhmann B, Rainwater L, Schmaus G and Smeeding T (1988) Equivalence scales, well being, inequality, and poverty: Sensitivity estimates across ten countries using the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) database. Review of Income and Wealth 29:115-142.
Bush R and Baum F (2002) Health, inequities, community and social capital. In Eckersley R, Dixon J and Douglas R (eds) The Social Origin of Health and Well-Being, Cambridge University Press: London.
Campbell C and Wood R (1999) Social Capital and Health, Health Education Authority: London.
Coleman JS (1988) Social capital in the creation of human capital. American Journal of Sociology 94:S95-S121.
Diala CC and Muntaner C (2003) Mood and anxiety disorders among rural, urban, and metropolitan residents in the United States. Community Mental Health Journal 39(3):239-253.
DPA (2000) Five Decades of Responsibility in the Refugee Camps of Jordan, Government of Jordan, Department of Palestinian Affairs: Amman.
Eaton WW, Muntaner C, Bovasso G and Smith C (2001) Socioeconomic status and depressive syndrome: the role of inter- and intra-generational mobility, government assistance, and work environment. The Journal of Health and Social Behavior 42(3):277-294.
Ellaway A and Macintyre S (2000) Social capital and self-rated health: support for a contextual mechanism. American Journal of Public Health 90(6):988.
Galea S, Karpati A and Kennedy B (2002) Social capital and violence in the United States. Social Science and Medicine 55(8):1373-1383.
Gold R, Kennedy B, Connel F and Kawachi I (2002) Teen births, income inequality and social capital: developing and understanding of the causal pathways. Health and Place 8:77-83.
Grundy E and Slogget A (2003) Health inequalities in the older population: the role of personal capital, social resources and socio-economic circumstances. Social Science and Medicine 56(5):935-947.
Harpham T, Grant E and Rodriguez C (2004) Mental health and social capital in Cali, Columbia. Social Science and Medicine 58:2267-2277.
Harris J (2001) Depoliticizing Development: The World Bank And Social Capital, Leftworld: Delhi.
Hendryx MS, Ahern MM, Lovrich NP and McCurdy AH (2002) Access to health care and community social capital. Health Service Research 37(1):87-103.
Holtgrave DR and Crosby RA (2003) Social capital, poverty, and income inequality as predictors of gonorrhoea, syphilis, chlamydia and AIDS case rates in the United States. Sexually Transmitted Infections 79(1):62-64.
Hyyppä MT and Mäki J (2001) Individual-level relationships between social capital and self-rated health in a bilingual community. Preventive Medicine 32(2):148-155.
Joshi H, Wiggins RD, Bartley M, Mitchell R, Gleave S and Lynch K (2000) Putting health inequalities on the map: does where you live matter and why? In Graham H (ed) Understanding Health Inequalities, Open University Press: Buckingham: 143-155.
Kawachi I, Kennedy BP, Lochner K and Prothrow-Stith D (1997) Social capital, income inequality, and mortality. American Journal of Public Health 87(9):1491-1498.
Kawachi I, Kennedy BP and Glass R (1999) Social capital and self-rated health: a contextual analysis. American Journal of Public Health 89(9):1187-1193.
Kennedy BP, Kawachi I, Glass R and Prothrow-Stith D (1998) Income distribution, socioeconomic status, and self-rated health in the United States: multilevel analysis. British Medical Journal 317:917-921.
Kennedy BP, Kawachi I, Prothrow-Stith D, Lochner K and Gupta V (1998) Social capital, income inequality, and firearm violent crime. Social Science and Medicine 41(2):56-59.
Khawaja M (2003) Migration and the reproduction of poverty: the refugee camps in Jordan. International Migration 41:27-57.
Khawaja M and Tiltnes Å (2002) On the Margins: Migration and Living Conditions of Palestinian Camp Refugees in Jordan. Fafo: Oslo, Norway.
Layne L (1981) Women in Jordan's Workforce. MERIP Reports: Women and Work in the Middle East 95:19-23.
Levy PS and Lemeshow S (1999) Sampling of Populations: Methods and Applications (3rd edn) Wiley: New York.
Lin N (2001) Social Capital: A Theory of Social Structure and Action, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.
Lindstrom M (2003) Social capital and the miniaturization of community among daily and intermittent smokers: a population-based study. Preventive Medicine 36(2):177-184.
Lindstrom M, Moghaddassi M and Merlo J (2003) Social capital and leisure time physical activity: a population based multilevel analysis in Malmo, Sweden. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 57(1):23-28.
Lindstrom M, Hanson BS and Ostergen PO (2001) Socioeconomic differences in leisure-time physical activity: the role of social participation and social capital in shaping health related behavior. Social Science and Medicine 52(3):441-451.
Lochner K, Kawachi I and Kennedy BP (1999) Social capital: A guide to its measurement. Health and Place 5(4):259-270.
Lochner KA, Kawachi I, Brennan RT and Buka SL (2003) Social capital and neighborhood mortality rates in Chicago. Social Science and Medicine 56(8):1797-1805.
Lovell AM (2002) Risking risk: the influence of types of capital and social networks on the injection practices of drug users. Social Science and Medicine 55(5):803-821.
Lynch J, Davey Smith G, Kaplan G and House J (2000) Income inequality and mortality: importance of health of individual income, psychosocial environment, or material conditions. British Medical Journal 320:1200-04.
Marx K [1857] (1956) Karl Marx: Selected Writings in Sociology and Social Philosophy (translation Bottomore T), McGraw-Hill: New York.
McKenzie K, Whitley R and Weich S (2002) Social capital and mental health. British Journal of Psychiatry 181:280-283.
Muntaner C (2002) Power, politics, and social class. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 56(8):562.
Muntaner C (2004) Commentary: social capital, social class, and the slow progress of psychosocial epidemiology. International Journal of Epidemiology 28:674-680.
Muntaner C, Eaton WW, Diala C, Kessler RC and Sorlie PD (1998) Social class, assets, organizational control and the prevalence of common groups of psychiatric disorders. Social Science and Medicine 47(12):2043-2053.
Muntaner C and Lynch J (1999) Income inequality, social cohesion, and class relations: a critique of Wilkinson's Neo-Durkheimian research program. International Journal of Health Services 29(1):59-81.
Muntaner C and Lynch J (2002) Social capital, class, race and gender conflict and population health. International Journal of Epidemiology 31:261-67.
Muntaner C, Lynch JW, Hillemeier M, Lee JH, David R, Benach J and Borrell C (2002) Economic inequality, working-class power, social capital, and cause-specific mortality in wealthy countries. International Journal of Health Services 32(4):629-656.
Navarro V (2002) A critique of social capital. International Journal of Health Services 32:423-32.
Portes A (1998) Social capital: its origins and applications in modern sociology. Annual Review of Sociology 22:1-24.
Putnam RD (1993) Making Democracy Work: Civic Tradition in Modern Italy. Princeton University Press: Princeton, NJ.
Putnam RD (2000) Bowling a Lone: the Collapse and Revival of American Community. Simon and Schuster: New York.
Rietschlin J (1998) Voluntary association membership and psychological distress. Journal of Health and Social Behavior 39:348-55.
Rose R (2000) How much does social capital add to individual health? A survey study of Russians. Social Science and Medicine 51:1421-1435.
Sampson RJ, Raudenbush SW and Earls F (1997) Neighborhoods and violent crime: a multilevel study of collective efficacy. Science 277:918-924.
Schofer E and Fourcade-Gourinchas M (2001) The structural contexts of civic engagement: voluntary association membership in comparative perspective. American Sociological Review 66(6):806-828.
Skrabski A, Kopp M and Kawachi I (2003) Social capital in a changing society: cross sectional associations with middle aged female and male mortality rates. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 57:114-119.
Subramanian SV, Kawachi I and Kennedy B (2001) Does the state you live in make a difference? Multilevel analysis of self-rated health in the US. Social Science and Medicine 53:9-19.
Szreter S and Woolcock M (2004) Health by association? Social capital, social theory, and the political economy of public health. International Journal of Epidemiology 28:650-667.
Tolbert C, Lyson T and Irwin M (1998) Local capitalism, civic engagement, and socio-economic well-being. Social Forces 77:401-428.
UNRWA (2002) Fact Sheet United Nations Relief and Works. Agency: Gaza.
Veenstra G (2000) Social capital, SES and health: an individual-level analysis. Social Science and Medicine 50:619-629.
Wilkinson RG (1996) Unhealthy Societies: The Affliction of Inequality. Routledge: London.
Ziersch AM and Baum FE (2004) Involvement in civil society groups: Is it good for your health? Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 58:493-500.
eContent Home