IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v119y2014icp139-146.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The effect of social support on the health of Indigenous Australians in a metropolitan community

Author

Listed:
  • Waterworth, Pippa
  • Rosenberg, Michael
  • Braham, Rebecca
  • Pescud, Melanie
  • Dimmock, James

Abstract

The factors driving the disparity in health outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians continue to be poorly understood. Despite this, studies confirm that social connections are a very important part of Indigenous life, and it is likely these connections play an important role in influencing health outcomes among this population. Examining the support provided by social connections in relation to health behaviour may assist our understanding of health outcomes among Indigenous Australians. The current study is focused on exploring Indigenous participants' impressions of their social network and social support using Participatory Action Research methodology and qualitative methods. The objective was to identify the influence of social support on the health outcomes of Indigenous people within a Western Australian metropolitan community. Seventeen members of the community were interviewed during the study. The participants had extensive social networks that mainly comprised members of their kinship group. The consequences of this social network included: (1) the positive effects of social support from bonded relationships; (2) the negative effects of social support produced by over-obligation and unidirectional support involving bonded relationships; (3) limited or inadequate social support caused by withdrawal from bonded relationships; (4) lack of social support from bridging relationships; and (5) a strong desire for connection and a sense of belonging.

Suggested Citation

  • Waterworth, Pippa & Rosenberg, Michael & Braham, Rebecca & Pescud, Melanie & Dimmock, James, 2014. "The effect of social support on the health of Indigenous Australians in a metropolitan community," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 139-146.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:119:y:2014:i:c:p:139-146
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.08.035
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953614005619
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.08.035?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Weitzman, E.R. & Kawachi, I., 2000. "Giving means receiving: The protective effect of social capital on binge drinking on college campuses," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 90(12), pages 1936-1939.
    2. Browne-Yung, Kathryn & Ziersch, Anna & Baum, Fran & Gallaher, Gilbert, 2013. "Aboriginal Australians' experience of social capital and its relevance to health and wellbeing in urban settings," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 20-28.
    3. Veenstra, Gerry, 2000. "Social capital, SES and health: an individual-level analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 50(5), pages 619-629, March.
    4. Alison Booth & Nick Carroll, 2005. "The Health Status of Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Australians," CEPR Discussion Papers 486, Centre for Economic Policy Research, Research School of Economics, Australian National University.
    5. Carpiano, Richard M., 2006. "Toward a neighborhood resource-based theory of social capital for health: Can Bourdieu and sociology help?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 165-175, January.
    6. Richmond, C.A.M. & Ross, N.A. & Egeland, G.M., 2007. "Social support and thriving health: A new approach to understanding the health of indigenous Canadians," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 97(10), pages 1827-1833.
    7. Iwasaki, Yoshi & Bartlett, Judith & O'Neil, John, 2005. "Coping with stress among Aboriginal women and men with diabetes in Winnipeg, Canada," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 60(5), pages 977-988, March.
    8. Ziersch, Anna M. & Gallaher, Gilbert & Baum, Fran & Bentley, Michael, 2011. "Responding to racism: Insights on how racism can damage health from an urban study of Australian Aboriginal people," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(7), pages 1045-1053.
    9. Richmond, Chantelle A.M. & Ross, Nancy A., 2008. "Social support, material circumstance and health behaviour: Influences on health in First Nation and Inuit communities of Canada," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(9), pages 1423-1433, November.
    10. Melchior, Maria & Berkman, Lisa F. & Niedhammer, Isabelle & Chea, Maline & Goldberg, Marcel, 2003. "Social relations and self-reported health: a prospective analysis of the French Gazel cohort," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 56(8), pages 1817-1830, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Pedro Henrique Ribeiro Santiago & Gustavo Hermes Soares & Lisa Gaye Smithers & Rachel Roberts & Lisa Jamieson, 2022. "Psychological Network of Stress, Coping and Social Support in an Aboriginal Population," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(22), pages 1-22, November.
    2. Matthew Manning & Christopher L. Ambrey & Christopher M. Fleming, 2016. "A Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Wellbeing in Australia," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 17(6), pages 2503-2525, December.
    3. Wichmann, Bruno & Wichmann, Roberta, 2022. "COVID-19 and Indigenous health in the Brazilian Amazon," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Senese, Laura C. & Wilson, Kathi, 2013. "Aboriginal urbanization and rights in Canada: Examining implications for health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 219-228.
    2. Lundborg, Petter, 2005. "Social capital and substance use among Swedish adolescents--an explorative study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(6), pages 1151-1158, September.
    3. Ali, Sadiq M. & Merlo, Juan & Rosvall, Maria & Lithman, Thor & Lindström, Martin, 2006. "Social capital, the miniaturisation of community, traditionalism and first time acute myocardial infarction: A prospective cohort study in southern Sweden," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(8), pages 2204-2217, October.
    4. Verhaeghe, Pieter-Paul & Tampubolon, Gindo, 2012. "Individual social capital, neighbourhood deprivation, and self-rated health in England," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(2), pages 349-357.
    5. Ferlander, Sara & Mäkinen, Ilkka Henrik, 2009. "Social capital, gender and self-rated health. Evidence from the Moscow Health Survey 2004," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(9), pages 1323-1332, November.
    6. Markwick, Alison & Ansari, Zahid & Sullivan, Mary & McNeil, John, 2015. "Social determinants and psychological distress among Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander adults in the Australian state of Victoria: A cross-sectional population based study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 178-187.
    7. Baron-Epel, Orna & Weinstein, Ruth & Haviv-Mesika, Amalia & Garty-Sandalon, Noga & Green, Manfred S., 2008. "Individual-level analysis of social capital and health: A comparison of Arab and Jewish Israelis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(4), pages 900-910, February.
    8. Hswen, Yulin & Qin, Qiuyuan & Williams, David R. & Viswanath, K. & Brownstein, John S. & Subramanian, S.V., 2020. "The relationship between Jim Crow laws and social capital from 1997–2014: A 3-level multilevel hierarchical analysis across time, county and state," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 262(C).
    9. Waverijn, Geeke & Heijmans, Monique & Groenewegen, Peter P., 2017. "Neighbourly support of people with chronic illness; is it related to neighbourhood social capital?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 110-117.
    10. Hutchinson, Rebbeca N. & Putt, Mary A. & Dean, Lorraine T. & Long, Judith A. & Montagnet, Chantal A. & Armstrong, Katrina, 2009. "Neighborhood racial composition, social capital and black all-cause mortality in Philadelphia," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(10), pages 1859-1865, May.
    11. Yamamura, Eiji, 2011. "Different effects of social capital on health status among residents: Evidence from modern Japan," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 40(5), pages 475-479.
    12. Damiano Fiorillo & Giuseppe Lubrano Lavadera & Nunzia Nappo, 2020. "Individual Heterogeneity in the Association Between Social Participation and Self-rated Health: A Panel Study on BHPS," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 151(2), pages 645-667, September.
    13. Liamputtong, Pranee & Suwankhong, Dusanee, 2015. "Therapeutic landscapes and living with breast cancer: The lived experiences of Thai women," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 263-271.
    14. Tindara Addabbo & Marco Fuscaldo & Anna Maccagnan, 2014. "Care and the capability of living a healthy life in a gender perspective," Department of Economics 0042, University of Modena and Reggio E., Faculty of Economics "Marco Biagi".
    15. Juliana Gabrielle Martins & Haroldo Neves de Paiva & Paula Cristina Pelli Paiva & Raquel Conceição Ferreira & Isabela Almeida Pordeus & Patricia Maria Zarzar & Ichiro Kawachi, 2017. "New evidence about the “dark side” of social cohesion in promoting binge drinking among adolescents," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(6), pages 1-12, June.
    16. Hale, James & Knapp, Corrine & Bardwell, Lisa & Buchenau, Michael & Marshall, Julie & Sancar, Fahriye & Litt, Jill S., 2011. "Connecting food environments and health through the relational nature of aesthetics: Gaining insight through the community gardening experience," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(11), pages 1853-1863, June.
    17. Ball, Kylie & Cleland, Verity J. & Timperio, Anna F. & Salmon, Jo & Giles-Corti, Billie & Crawford, David A., 2010. "Love thy neighbour? Associations of social capital and crime with physical activity amongst women," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(4), pages 807-814, August.
    18. Sirven, Nicolas, 2006. "Endogenous social capital and self-rated health: Cross-sectional data from rural areas of Madagascar," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(6), pages 1489-1502, September.
    19. Stafford, Mai & Cummins, Steven & Ellaway, Anne & Sacker, Amanda & Wiggins, Richard D. & Macintyre, Sally, 2007. "Pathways to obesity: Identifying local, modifiable determinants of physical activity and diet," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(9), pages 1882-1897, November.
    20. Pronyk, Paul M. & Harpham, Trudy & Morison, Linda A. & Hargreaves, James R. & Kim, Julia C. & Phetla, Godfrey & Watts, Charlotte H. & Porter, John D., 2008. "Is social capital associated with HIV risk in rural South Africa?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(9), pages 1999-2010, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:119:y:2014:i:c:p:139-146. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.