Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
Res Nurs Health. 2021 Dec;44(6):957-969. doi: 10.1002/nur.22189. Epub 2021 Oct 14.
Social isolation has been linked to numerous health risks, including depression and mortality. Parents raising children in low-income and under-resourced communities are at an increased risk for experiencing social isolation and its negative effects. Social connectedness (SC), one's sense of belongingness and connection to other people, or a community, has been linked to reduced social isolation and improved health outcomes in the general population, yet little is known about the impact SC has on parents with low incomes. This integrative review aims to describe the current state of the science surrounding SC in parents with low incomes, summarize how SC is being defined and measured, evaluate the quality of the science, and identify gaps in the literature to guide future research. Five electronic databases were searched, yielding 15 articles for inclusion. Empirical studies meeting the following criteria were included: population focused on parents who have low incomes or live in low-income communities and have dependent children, outcomes were parent-centered, SC was a study variable or a qualitative finding, and publication date was before March 2021. Findings emphasize SC as a promising construct that may be protective in the health and well-being of parents and children living in low-income communities. However, a lack of consensus on definitions and measures of SC makes it difficult to build a strong science base for understanding these potential benefits. Future research should focus on understanding the mechanisms by which SC works to benefit parents and their children.
社会孤立与许多健康风险有关，包括抑郁和死亡率。在低收入和资源匮乏的社区抚养孩子的父母面临着更高的社会孤立风险及其负面影响。社交联系（SC），即一个人与他人或社区的归属感和联系，与减少社会孤立和改善普通人群的健康结果有关，但人们对 SC 对低收入父母的影响知之甚少。本综合评价旨在描述有关低收入父母 SC 的现有科学状况，总结 SC 的定义和测量方法，评估科学质量，并确定文献中的空白，以指导未来的研究。对五个电子数据库进行了搜索，共纳入了 15 篇文章。符合以下标准的实证研究被纳入：研究对象为收入较低或生活在低收入社区且有受抚养子女的父母，研究结果以父母为中心，SC 是研究变量或定性发现，且出版物日期在 2021 年 3 月之前。研究结果强调 SC 是一个有前途的构建，可能对生活在低收入社区的父母和孩子的健康和幸福具有保护作用。然而，SC 的定义和测量方法缺乏共识，使得难以建立一个强大的科学基础来理解这些潜在的好处。未来的研究应侧重于理解 SC 发挥作用为父母及其子女带来益处的机制。
