Grant: CIHR New Investigator

The concept of community social capital--the resources that exist within community social ties and networks--has received intense interest by health researchers and policymakers. This interest has emerged in trying to understand how the social conditions of neighborhoods and other local areas contribute to the health and well-being of residents. However, existing data on social capital in British Columbia (BC) (as well as in Canada overall) provide insufficient information for policy and practice aimed at improving health and well-being in general and, more specifically, early childhood development (ECD)--a critical period of the lifespan for preventing or ameliorating many potentially harmful adult health outcomes. The objective of this project is to examine how neighborhood social networks and the resources they provide matter for the health and well-being of two subpopulations in British Columbia (BC): young children and adults. The project will analyze a comprehensive dataset of neighborhood conditions and child and adult well-being. Survey data on community social ties and adult health will be collected from over 3000 respondents located in 100 rural and urban BC neighborhoods. This unprecedented BC data will be merged with area census data and an existing BC population database of kindergarteners' ECD score records. This project has 2 major benefits. First, it will provide an improved--and Canadian-specific--examination of the different ways that urban and rural neighborhood social conditions matter for the health and well-being of the young children and adults who live within these locations. Second, it will provide a crucial--and rare--resource for informing policies and interventions aimed at developing neighborhoods into environments that promote health and well-being from the early years onward. The information generated by this project will be useful for residents, parents, researchers, policymakers, and practitioners.