Search results for ‘Author:"de silva mary j."’ Sort:
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Social capital and mental illness: a systematic review
- Author:
- DE SILVA Mary J.
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 59(8), August 2005, pp.619-627.
- Publisher:
- BMJ Journals
Twenty bibliographic databases and the references of relevant papers were searched for quantitative studies examining the association between social capital and mental illness. Authors were also contacted for details of unpublished work. Studies with a validated mental illness outcome measure and an exposure variable agreed as measuring social capital were included. Twenty-one studies met the inclusion criteria, with 14 measuring social capital at the individual level and seven at an ecological level. The former suggested an inverse relation between cognitive social capital and common mental disorders, and there was moderate evidence for such a relation in children. The ecological studies were too diverse to synthesise easily. The paper concludes that individual and ecological capital may measure different aspects of the social environment, and that current evidence is inadequate to inform the development of specific social capital interventions to combat mental illness. (Edited publisher abstract)
Understanding sources and types of social capital in Peru
- Authors:
- DE SILVA Mary J., et al
- Journal article citation:
- Community Development Journal, 42(1), January 2007, pp.19-33.
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
Social capital is broadly defined as the ‘value’ of social relationships. A substantial amount of work has been conducted into the role of social capital, but little of it has focused on Latin America and Peru in particular. Standard tools are often used to measure social capital in different cultural settings. The authors argue that while there are common themes, the exact nature of social capital is dependent upon the specific norms of behaviour, networks and organizations that characterize a given setting. Social capital is a multidimensional and culturally specific concept. The contribution that different organizations and networks make to different aspects of social capital varies by setting (rural/urban), person involved (male/female), and over time, highlighting the need for culturally sensitive measures. Two approaches are used to describe the characteristics of social capital in Peru: a literature review of research on social capital in Peru, and qualitative in-depth interviews with twenty respondents from one rural and two urban areas of Peru.
Social capital and mental health: a comparative analysis of four low income countries
- Authors:
- DE SILVA Mary J., et al
- Journal article citation:
- Social Science and Medicine, 64(1), January 2007, pp.5-20.
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
Women and the poor are disproportionately affected by common mental disorders (CMD), and women in low income countries are particularly at risk. Social capital may explain some of the geographical variation in CMD, but the association between social capital and CMD in low income countries has rarely been studied. This paper aims to explore the relationship between individual and ecological measures of social capital and maternal CMD in four low income countries. Cross-sectional data from the Young Lives (YL) study with information across 234 communities in Peru, Ethiopia, Vietnam and Andhra Pradesh (India) were used. The mental health of mothers of one-year-old children (n=6909), and the individual cognitive and structural social capital of all respondents was assessed. Ecological social capital was calculated by aggregating individual responses to the community level. Multi-level modelling was used to explore the association between individual and ecological (community level) social capital and maternal CMD in each of the four countries, adjusting for a wide range of individual and community level confounders. The analysis shows that individual cognitive social capital is associated with reduced odds of CMD across all four countries. The results for structural social capital are more mixed and culturally specific, with some aspects associated with increased odds of CMD. This suggests that structural social capital has context-specific effects and cognitive social capital more universal effects on maternal CMD.
Psychometric and cognitive validation of a social capital measurement tool in Peru and Vietnam
- Authors:
- DE SILVA Mary J., et al
- Journal article citation:
- Social Science and Medicine, 62(4), February 2006, pp.941-953.
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
Social capital is a relatively new concept which has attracted significant attention in recent years. No consensus has yet been reached on how to measure social capital, resulting in a large number of different tools available. While psychometric validation methods such as factor analysis have been used by a few studies to assess the internal validity of some tools, these techniques rely on data already collected by the tool and are therefore not capable of eliciting what the questions are actually measuring. The Young Lives (YL) study includes quantitative measures of caregiver's social capital in four countries (Vietnam, Peru, Ethiopia, and India) using a short version of the Adapted Social Capital Assessment Tool (SASCAT). A range of different psychometric methods including factor analysis were used to evaluate the construct validity of SASCAT in Peru and Vietnam. In addition, qualitative cognitive interviews with 20 respondents from Peru and 24 respondents from Vietnam were conducted to explore what each question is actually measuring. The authors argue that psychometric validation techniques alone are not sufficient to adequately validate multi-faceted social capital tools for use in different cultural settings. Psychometric techniques show SASCAT to be a valid tool reflecting known constructs and displaying postulated links with other variables. However, results from the cognitive interviews present a more mixed picture with some questions being appropriately interpreted by respondents, and others displaying significant differences between what the researchers intended them to measure and what they actually do. Using evidence from a range of methods of assessing validity has enabled the modification of an existing instrument into a valid and low cost tool designed to measure social capital within larger surveys in Peru and Vietnam, with the potential for use in other developing countries following local piloting and cultural adaptation of the tool.