Community identity, life satisfaction, empowerment and health: suggesting a model for the immigrant population

Community identity, life satisfaction, empowerment and health: suggesting a model for the immigrant population Patricia García-Leiva, Juan Manuel Domínguez Fuentes, María Isabel Hombrados Mendieta, Luis Gómez Jacinto and Mario Millán Franco Department of Social Psychology, Social Work, Social Anthropology and East Asian Studies of the University of Malaga (Spain) 1.Introduction The academic literature shows that studies in the fields of Community Psychology and Group Psychology have reached the same conclusion:belonging to and identifying with agroup has an impact on health.However, when the studies are reviewed, there seems to be little communication between those engaged in these two lines of work, as contributions made from the perspective of Community (Hombrados-Mendieta yGarcía,2005;Martin &Jiménez, 2014;Xu &Chi, 2013)are not compared with those made from that of Social Identity (Haslam, Jetten,Postmes &Haslem,2009,Levine &Reicher,1996). Therefore, this study opts for an integrative perspective that makes possible progress towards apolitical/social viewpoint.Specifically, it is sought to understand the relationship between identification with the neighbourhood in which one lives (what has been called "community identity") and the mental health of Malaga's immigrant population, amodel being proposed in which the relationship between health and identity is mediated by empowerment. . 40th Annual Scientific Meeting of the International Society of Political Psychology, ISPP, 29 June-2 July 2017, Edinburg (Scotland) 2. Method Sample Employing asurvey methodology, 1,131 immigrant citizens residing in Malaga (Spain) were interviewed, with the sample stratified by gender and continent.Those carrying out the surveys were to collect data from immigrants hailing from Latin America, Africa, Europe and Asia.Of the total sample, 47.10%were men and 52.90%were women, with amean age of 32.26 (SD =11.84). 24.20%of the sample was from Africa, 23.70%from Europe, 27.40%from Latin America and 24.70%from Asia. In response to the question regarding how long the respondents had resided in Malaga, 36%indicated 0to 5years;31.29%, between 6and 10 years;21.59%, between 11 and 15 years;and 11.12%had lived in this city for more than 16 years.The mean number of years of residence was 8.71 years (SD = 6.44). Materials Community identity was measured using eight items extracted from the SCI-2 Sense of Community Index (Chavis, Lee &Acosta, 2008). A factor analysis showed that asingle factor accounted for 41.09%of the variance, the reliability being 0.84. Empowerment was calculated through aset of six items taken from the CD-RISC resilience scale created by Serrano-Parra, Garrido-Abejara, Notario-Pacheco, Bartolomé-Gutierrez, Solera-Martínez and Martínez-Vizcaíno (2012). Factor analysis illustrated that asingle factor accounted for 52.21%of the variance, with the reliability being 0.87.The Satisfaction with Life Scale, SWLS, (Pavot and Diener, 1993)was fully applied, and presented an alpha of 0.87.Finally, the Spanish version of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12)by Goldberg (Villa, Crammily &Restrepo, 2013)was used to assess mental health, with its reliability being 0.81.All the scales feature aLikert-type response format. Procedure Each survey taker was provided questionnaires translated into different languages (through translation and retranslation).They were given the gender and continent quotas that they were to meet, and the instrument was explained to them so that they were familiar with it.The questionnaires were completed individually, although the interviewer clarified any questions that the respondent asked.People participated in the study on avoluntary basis and their anonymity was guaranteed. 3. Results 4. Conclusions As shown in the presentation of results, the data support the proposed model, although in future analyses it will be necessary to study the differences according to nationality, age, duration of residence in the city, as well as identification with their communities of origin.Likewise, in future studies it will be necessary to continue employing acomprehensive psychosocial perspective that makes it possible to understand group relationships at the community level, in order to be able to implement policies that improve quality of life and coexistence. As can be seen in the model, community identity predicts life satisfaction amongst immigrants, as well as their empowerment.It also has amajor effect on health, as long as empowerment is high.It is also important to note the direct relationship between empowerment and health protection, an outcome already found in previous studies (Wallerstein, 1992). Thus, immigrants who identify more with the neighbourhoods in which they reside are more satisfied and more empowered.Likewise, they suffer fewer health problems if, addition to identifying with their community, they feel strengthened. The fact that people with more community identity actually present more health problems warrants special consideration Study carried out with financing by the Government of Spain's Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, reference: PSI2013-40508-P email: [email protected]