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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Assessing the impact of illness, caring and ethnicity on social activity | | Author(s) | Lucinda Platt |
| Corporate Author | ESRC Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion - CASE, Suntory-Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines - STICERD, London School of Economics and Political Science |
| Publisher | STICERD, London, 2006 |
| Pages | 40 pp (CASEpaper 108) |
| Source | Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, London School of Economics, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE. http://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/case |
| Keywords | Participation ; Engagement ; Ethnic groups ; Ill health ; Informal care ; Poverty ; Social surveys. |
| Annotation | It has long been accepted that lack of social participation in wider society is one aspect or one definition of poverty. Concerns with the extent and distribution of social capital as both a measure of a good society and a means to upward mobility also emphasises the importance of social contacts and networks to the well-being of individuals and communities. It has been argued that social interaction is conducive to better outcomes for those with health problems. The author uses the Home Office Citizenship Survey 2001 to explore the impact of lack of social engagement of long-term illness, caring for someone with such an illness, and ethnicity. Controlling for a range of characteristics and examining the relationships separately for men and women, there is evidence that between them, the four measures reveal an underlying propensity for reduced social contact. Other things being equal, illness has little association with reduced social participation, but caring does seem to affect opportunities for sociability. Members of some ethnic groups are less likely to engage in neighbourly social visiting than others, and these differences are little affected by income level. By contrast, differences in "going out" across groups can largely be explained by differences in income. Overall, social engagement among male Bangladeshis and to a lesser extent Pakistanis is high, whereas Black Africans and Black Caribbeans, especially women, are notable for their lack of opportunities for social engagement compared with their otherwise similar peers. They would appear to be particularly at risk of social isolation, with consequences for their current and future welfare. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-060404203 B |
| Classmark | TMB: DN: TK: CH: P6: W6: 3F |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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