The effect of group involvement on post-disaster mental health: A longitudinal multilevel analysis
Section snippets
Voluntary associations, social capital, and mental health
Involvement in voluntary groups has long been regarded as a key element of social capital, an umbrella concept referring to various tangible and symbolic resources imbued in social relationships, the benefits of which accrue to the individual who holds them, and/or to the community that they bind together (Burt, 2000; Coleman, 1988; Kawachi et al., 2008; Lin, 2002; Putnam, 2000). Public health researchers have generally favoured a holistic conceptualisation in which social capital is seen as a
Participants and procedure
Two subsamples of participants were drawn from a larger sample of past and current residents (N = 736) of 25 bushfire-affected communities in rural and regional Victoria, surveyed at two time points as part of a longitudinal study of individual and community responses to the disaster (Gibbs et al., 2013). Survey data at time 1 were collected with informed consent from May 2012 through January 2013 (3–4 years post-disaster) by telephone interview or by web-based questionnaire, and readministered
Results
Hypothesis 1 stated that group involvement at baseline would show a curvilinear (U-shaped) relationship with both PTSD (hypothesis 1a) and depression (hypothesis 1b) at Time 2. In support of hypothesis 1a, individual-level group involvement bore a significant curvilinear relationship with PTSD at time 1 (βxt1 = −0.17, βx2t1 = 0.02) and at time 2 (βxt2 = −0.12, βx2t2 = 0.02), even when controlling for a range of related sociodemographic and network variables (Table 3, Model A). Meanwhile, group
Discussion
The aim of the current study was to investigate the impact of involvement in voluntary associations on mental health over time, in the years following a major bushfire disaster. This was investigated at both the level of the individual and that of the community, adjusting for a range of experiential and sociostructural variables. Group involvement was associated with PTSD symptoms, both at the individual level and the community level, and both cross-sectionally, and longitudinally. At the
Conclusion
Despite the well-founded expectation that organized group life plays a crucial role in the healthy functioning of individuals and communities, surprisingly little empirical evidence exists in support. In response, the findings from this study support the basic but important premise that involvement in voluntary groups is beneficial, not only for the individuals who are themselves involved, but for the community as a whole. These findings therefore highlight group involvement as a
Financial support
This research was supported through an Australian Research Council Linkage Grant (LP100200164), along with the contributions of these partner organisations: Outer East Health and Community Support Alliance, Bendigo Loddon Primary Care Partnership, Lower Hume Primary Care Partnership, Central West Gippsland Primary Care Partnership, Banyule Nillumbik Primary Care Alliance, Central Hume Primary Care Partnership, Australian Red Cross, Australian Rotary Health, Victorian Department of Health,
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the contributions of research participants, and the support of community organisations and local governments. The authors would like to acknowledge the Beyond Bushfires investigator team for their contribution to this paper (particularly Lou Harms and Greg Ireton), along with Alex Stivala for technical assistance. We would also like to acknowledge the contributions of the late Elizabeth Waters.
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