Elsevier

Social Science & Medicine

Volume 220, January 2019, Pages 167-175
Social Science & Medicine

The effect of group involvement on post-disaster mental health: A longitudinal multilevel analysis

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.11.006Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Moderate levels of group involvement led to decreased PTSD among bushfire-affected residents.

  • Over involvement in groups and a lack of close interpersonal ties led to greater depression.

  • Residing in a community in which most people are involved in groups provides an additional benefit.

Abstract

Involvement in voluntary associations is a key form of social capital and plays an especially important role following disaster as a venue for coordination and decision-making for the wider community. Yet, relatively little attention has been paid to how group involvement affects mental health, at either the individual or community level. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of involvement in voluntary associations on mental health among residents of bushfire-affected communities. A longitudinal sample of 642 individuals affected by the 2009 Victorian bushfires in south-eastern Australia were surveyed in 2012 and 2014 (3- and 5-years post-disaster). A further subsample (n = 552) of residents residing continuously within 22 bushfire-affected communities were examined for community-level effects using multilevel regression methods. After adjusting for demographics, disaster exposure, and network variables, group involvement at time 1 bore a curvilinear relationship with PTSD at both time points: moderate involvement was most beneficial, with no participation, or high amounts, yielding poorer outcomes. High amounts of group involvement was likewise linked to a greater risk of major depression. Furthermore, communities with higher median levels of group involvement reported lower levels of PTSD symptoms and major depression two years later. With respect to group involvement, more is not always better. For individuals, moderation – if possible – is key. Meanwhile, community-level health benefits come when most people participate to some extent, suggesting that the distribution of involvement across the community is important.

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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