Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Role of Health-Promoting Community Organizations in Urban Neighborhoods

即使在法律上的种族隔离被定为非法的几十年后，种族居住隔离仍然是美国城市景观中一个重要而持久的方面。尽管随着时间的推移，美国黑人的种族隔离程度有所下降，但自20世纪60年代以来，其他种族和少数民族群体的巨大增长使这个问题变得更加复杂，并揭示了美国城市种族构成的新模式和新趋势。先前的研究已经将居住隔离与各种社会问题联系在一起，包括一生中健康状况不佳。然而，人们对产生这种联系的机制知之甚少。这个项目将研究一种这样的潜在机制，即社区组织资源的分配，以及这些社区的居民如何利用这些资源。这项研究提出，少数族裔隔离的社区可能减少了获得社区组织资源的机会，这种不同的获得机会可能导致不同社区的健康状况不同。考虑到这些考虑，该项目解决了种族/族裔居住隔离如何与美国少数族裔社区的健康结果相关的问题。PI将利用人口普查数据来源和美国社区调查，以及通过对凤凰城大都市区的专门调查--2013年凤凰城照顾者满意度调查--在全国范围内审查这一问题。这些数据源与PI正在进行的另一项研究项目中的当地社区服务组织的综合数据库配对。这两个数据源都用于分析家庭获得卫生保健资源的情况，当地社区可获得的资源是如何影响这种获取的，以及这反过来又如何影响长期健康。除了对学术文献的贡献外，该项目还对政策制定者和公共卫生从业人员具有实际意义。

Racial residential segregation is a significant and persistent aspect of the American urban landscape even decades after de jure segregation was made illegal. While segregation has declined modestly over time for Black Americans, the immense growth of other racial and ethnic minority groups since the 1960s has complicated this issue and revealed new patterns and trends in the urban racial makeup of the United States. Prior research has linked residential segregation to a variety of social problems, including poor health across the life course. Yet the mechanisms that produce such an association are poorly understood. This project will examine one such potential mechanism, the distribution of community organizational resources and how residents of such communities utilize those resources. This study proposes that minority segregated communities may have diminished access to community organizational resources and that this differential access may contribute to differences in health statuses across communities. With these considerations in mind the project addresses the question of how racial/ethnic residential segregation is related to health outcomes for minority communities in the United States. The PI's will examine the question nationally, using Census data sources and the American Community Survey, as well as locally through a specialized survey of the Phoenix metropolitan area, the 2013 Phoenix Caregiver Satisfaction Survey. These data sources are paired with a comprehensive database of local community-serving organizations from another ongoing research project by the PI's. Both data sources are used in an analysis of family access to health care resources, how that access is patterned by what is available in local communities, and how this in turn impacts long term health. In addition to the contributions to the academic literature, the project has practical implications for policy makers and public health practitioners.