Social participation involves individuals engaging in activities or groups that create connections with others. For individuals to socially participate, they require access in their local area to community assets, such as community centres. However, the association between access to community assets and social participation is not well established, nor is whether awareness or proximity of assets is most important. This thesis aims to identify the characteristics that predict engagement in social participation, the role of community asset infrastructure in facilitating participation, and whether health and well-being gains from social participation vary with propensity to participate. The predictors of social participation are assessed in chapter two. This uses data on 35,482 individuals from the Community Life Survey. The analysis identifies the characteristics associated with participation and the impact of community asset availability. This was measured by whether individuals report that facilities are within a 15-20-minute walk of their home. Individuals who were female, Black, Asian or minority ethnicity, homeowners, had higher household income, and lived in a rural or non-deprived area were more likely to participate. Self-reported availability of community assets was associated with increased social participation, particularly availability of youth centres, places of worship, sports facilities and community centres. Chapter three uses the same dataset to study the health and well-being returns to social participation. These are estimated using a marginal treatment effects model with self-reported community asset infrastructure as an instrument. We assess health and well-being using Likert scores for: self-assessed health (answered on a 1-5 scale), loneliness (1-5); and the ONS4 questions of life-satisfaction (0-10), worthwhileness (0-10), happiness (0-10) and anxiety (0-10). The coefficient on the Inverse Mills Ratio indicates negative selection into social participation, meaning that returns to health, well-being, and loneliness are higher for those less likely to engage. The fourth chapter uses the UK Household Longitudinal Survey (UKHLS) and administrative data on physical community asset infrastructure. The physical locations of the same types of assets covered within the Community Life Survey were identified for respondents living in Greater Manchester. Asset availability and social participation were related to well-being only. Different evidence on selection effects to the previous chapter was found, with an insignificant coefficient on the Inverse Mills Ratio indicating returns do not vary across propensity to participate. The fifth chapter seeks to examine further the differences in selection effects obtained using physical and perceived availability. I restrict the sample of the Community Life Survey to urban areas within the North-West of England and compare results to the urban Greater Manchester sample of the UK HLS. I compare the determinants of reported and physical availability of community assets and analyse how this affects the estimated returns to health. The results indicate that perceived availability predicts social participation better than actual availability. However, in terms of returns to health and well-being, the models continue to have different selection effects. There is scope for increasing awareness of availability of community assets for individuals, particularly in deprived areas. This would aid in increasing rates of social participation, and in turn improve individuals' health and well-being.
Date of Award | 1 Aug 2023 |
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Original language | English |
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Awarding Institution | - The University of Manchester
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Supervisor | Peter Bower (Supervisor), Matthew Sutton (Supervisor) & Luke Munford (Supervisor) |
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- Social Participation
- Health Economics
- Health & Well-being
- Community Assets
Econometric Analysis of Health and Well-being Returns to Social Participation
Wilding, A. (Author). 1 Aug 2023
Student thesis: Phd