Social capital elite, excluded participators, busy working parents and aging, participating less: types of community participators and their mental health

摘要: With the prevalence and costs of mental health problems increasing, safe, effective economically viable prevention treatment strategies are urgently needed. Community participation is protectively linked to considered a valid promotion strategy. However, little consideration has been given socio-demographically driven patterns that would differentially affect success such The aims this study were group describe members socio–economically disadvantaged rural region according community participation, report on their levels social cohesion psychological distress reflect policy implications. Participants 963 members, aged 19–97, randomly selected from socio-economically coastal Australian region, who voluntarily completed an anonymous postal survey. Measures included (1) frequency fourteen types (2) thoughts feelings about each type, (3) five aspects cohesion. Two-step cluster analysis was undertaken derive groupings respondents based socio-demographic characteristics perceptions participation. Psychological assessed for group. Four distinct participants identified: capital elite; busy working parents; aging, participating less; excluded participators. last these reported particularly poor distress. For be effective, they must tailored circumstances intended recipients. This requires sophisticated target groups. shown may described systematically varying characteristics, Policy-makers might consider how whether different groups respond use increased as strategy barriers have overcome in