IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/urbstu/v54y2017i7p1619-1637.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Is empowerment a route to improving mental health and wellbeing in an urban regeneration (UR) context?

Author

Listed:
  • Camilla Baba

    (University of Glasgow, UK)

  • Ade Kearns

    (University of Glasgow, UK)

  • Emma McIntosh

    (University of Glasgow, UK)

  • Carol Tannahill

    (Glasgow Centre for Population Health, UK)

  • James Lewsey

    (University of Glasgow, UK)

Abstract

Urban regeneration (UR) programmes are recognised as a type of Population Health Intervention (PHI), addressing social and health inequalities. Policy recommends programmes involve communities through engagement and empowerment. Whilst the literature has started to link empowerment with health improvement, this has not been within an UR context. As part of broader research on the economic evaluation of community empowerment activities, this paper examines how health gains can be generated through promoting empowerment as well as identifying whether feelings of empowerment are associated with residents personal characteristics or perceptions of their neighbourhood. Using 2011 Community Health and Wellbeing Survey (GoWell) cross-sectional data, ordinal logistic regression and simple linear regression analysis of 15 Glasgow neighbourhoods undergoing regeneration with 4302 adult householders (≥16 years old) was completed. Analyses identified strong associations ( P ≥ 0.05) between empowerment and the mental health subscale of the SF12v2 and with several items of the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS) scale. Furthermore, residents’ who felt more empowered reported more positive attitudes towards their surroundings and housing providers. This concurs with recent evidence of the importance of residents’ psychological investments in their neighbourhood influencing their sense of place attachment. Such analyses present initial evidence of the value of investing resources within UR programmes to activities geared towards increasing residents’ empowerment as a means of producing those health gains often sought by more costly aspects of the programmes.

Suggested Citation

  • Camilla Baba & Ade Kearns & Emma McIntosh & Carol Tannahill & James Lewsey, 2017. "Is empowerment a route to improving mental health and wellbeing in an urban regeneration (UR) context?," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 54(7), pages 1619-1637, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:54:y:2017:i:7:p:1619-1637
    DOI: 10.1177/0042098016632435
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0042098016632435
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0042098016632435?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ade Kearns & Elise Whitley & Lyndal Bond & Carol Tannahill, 2012. "The Residential Psychosocial Environment and Mental Wellbeing in Deprived Areas," International Journal of Housing Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(4), pages 413-438.
    2. Kim McKee, 2007. "Community Ownership in Glasgow: The Devolution of Ownership and Control, or a Centralizing Process?," European Journal of Housing Policy, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 7(3), pages 319-336.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Louise Lawson & Ade Kearns, 2010. "‘Community Empowerment’ in the Context of the Glasgow Housing Stock Transfer," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 47(7), pages 1459-1478, June.
    2. Ade Kearns & Elise Whitley & Matt Egan & Catherine Tabbner & Carol Tannahill, 2017. "Healthy Migrants in an Unhealthy City? The Effects of Time on the Health of Migrants Living in Deprived Areas of Glasgow," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 675-698, August.
    3. David Kim Hin Ho & Eddie Chi-man Hui & Muhammad Faishal Bin Ibrahim, 2009. "Asset Value Enhancement of Singapore’s Public Housing Main Upgrading Programme (MUP) Policy: A Real Option Analysis Approach," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 46(11), pages 2329-2361, October.
    4. Kim McKee, 2009. "Empowering Glasgow's Tenants through Community Ownership?," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 24(4), pages 299-309, June.
    5. Ade Kearns & Phil Mason, 2018. "Entering and leaving employment in deprived neighbourhoods undergoing area regeneration," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 33(5), pages 537-561, August.
    6. Derek McGhee & Sue Heath & Paulina Trevena, 2013. "Post-Accession Polish Migrants—Their Experiences of Living in ‘Low-Demand’ Social Housing Areas in Glasgow," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 45(2), pages 329-343, February.

    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:sae:urbstu:v:54:y:2017:i:7:p:1619-1637. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/urbanstudiesjournal .

    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.