Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, School of Psychology and Public Health, La Trobe University, 215 Franklin Street, Melbourne, Victoria, 3000, Australia.
Institute for Human Security and Social Change, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia.
BMC Psychol. 2016 Apr 8;4:16. doi: 10.1186/s40359-016-0121-8.
Fostering the development of community groups can be an important part of boosting community participation and improving health and well-being outcomes in rural communities. In this article, we examine whether psychological well-being and resilience are linked to participating in particular kinds of rural community groups.
We conducted a household survey involving 176 participants aged 18 to 94 years from a medium-sized rural Australian town. We gathered data on psychological well-being (Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale), resilience (Brief Resilience Scale), and the types of community groups that people participated in as well as a range of characteristics of those groups, such as size, frequency of group meetings, perceived openness to new members, and whether groups had leaders, defined roles for members, hierarchies, and rules.
Univariable regression analyses revealed significant links between particular group characteristics and individual psychological well-being and resilience, suggesting that the characteristics of the group that an individual participates in are strongly tied to that person's well-being outcomes. Multivariable analyses revealed two significant independent factors. First, psychological well-being was greatest among those who participated in groups without a hierarchy, that is, equal-status relationships between members. Second, resilience was greater among those who reported having a sense of influence within a group.
Our findings suggest that policymakers wishing to promote participation in rural community groups for health and well-being benefits may do well to encourage the development of particular characteristics within those groups, in particular equal-status relationships and a sense of influence for all group members.
培养社区团体可以成为促进社区参与和改善农村社区健康和福祉成果的重要组成部分。在本文中，我们研究了心理幸福感和韧性是否与参与特定类型的农村社区团体有关。
我们对来自澳大利亚一个中型农村城镇的 176 名年龄在 18 至 94 岁之间的参与者进行了家庭调查。我们收集了有关心理幸福感（华威-爱丁堡心理健康量表）、韧性（简要韧性量表）以及人们参与的社区团体类型以及团体的一系列特征的数据，例如规模、团体会议频率、感知对新成员的开放性以及团体是否有领导者、为成员定义角色、等级制度和规则。
单变量回归分析显示，特定群体特征与个体心理幸福感和韧性之间存在显著联系，这表明个体参与的群体特征与该人幸福感的结果密切相关。多变量分析显示出两个重要的独立因素。首先，在没有等级制度的群体中，即成员之间平等关系的群体中，心理幸福感最高。其次，在报告在团体中有影响力的人中，韧性更大。
我们的研究结果表明，希望通过参与农村社区团体来促进健康和幸福感的政策制定者可能会很好地鼓励这些团体中特定特征的发展，特别是平等关系和所有成员的影响力感。
