University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI 53706, USA.
Health Educ Behav. 2011 Aug;38(4):339-47. doi: 10.1177/1090198110372880. Epub 2011 Apr 1.
Empowerment theory provides both a value orientation for community-based research and practice, and a conceptual framework for understanding and evaluating interventions. One critical question in empowerment theory involves whether a reciprocal (bidirectional) relationship exists between community participation (CP) and psychological empowerment (PE). This study applied structural equation modeling (SEM) with two waves of survey data from a cross-lagged panel design to test reciprocal and unidirectional causal relations between latent variables representing CP and PE. Participants (n = 474) were randomly selected neighborhood residents and organizational members from the United States. Four models were tested using SEM: (a) a baseline model with autoregressive paths, (b) a model with autoregressive effects and CP predicting future PE, (c) a model with autoregressive effects and PE predicting future CP, and (d) a fully cross-lagged model. Results indicated that CP influenced future PE; however, reciprocal causality was not found to occur between the variables. Implications of the study for empowerment theory and community-based practice are described, and directions for future research discussed.
赋权理论为基于社区的研究和实践提供了价值取向和概念框架，有助于理解和评估干预措施。赋权理论中的一个关键问题是社区参与（CP）和心理赋权（PE）之间是否存在相互的（双向的）关系。本研究采用结构方程模型（SEM），利用交叉滞后面板设计的两波调查数据，检验了代表 CP 和 PE 的潜在变量之间的互惠和单向因果关系。参与者（n=474）是来自美国的随机选择的社区居民和组织成员。使用 SEM 测试了四个模型：（a）具有自回归路径的基线模型；（b）具有自回归效应和 CP 预测未来 PE 的模型；（c）具有自回归效应和 PE 预测未来 CP 的模型；（d）完全交叉滞后模型。结果表明 CP 影响未来的 PE；但是，变量之间没有发现互惠因果关系。描述了该研究对赋权理论和基于社区的实践的意义，并讨论了未来研究的方向。
