Detroit CNP: "Social Network Analysis for CNP Partnerships"

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Our Detroit Community Network Program (CNP) is a five-year effort to reduce disparities in breast, prostate, colorectal and lung cancers adversely affecting our older, underserved African American adults in the metropolitan area. The NCI/CRCHD views "networks" of community partners as the backbone of the community-based participatory research and intervention approach. Active communication between and among partners is a necessary condition for creating positive change; the awareness and recognition that mutually dependent relationships exist can motivate development of strategies for efficiently sharing available health, social, and economic resources to reduce disparities. We propose to apply the network analytic approach to study the progress of our CNP, to empirically examine how measurement of dyadic relationships and overlapping dyads (clustered into larger clique and macro structures) affects perceptions of partnership and potential interdependence. We seek to determine the extent to which network analysis can assist us in monitoring and tracking the natural development (and potential sustainability) of these overlapping partnerships over the last two years of our CNP. Our aims are: 1. to determine the feasibility of using social network analysis as a tool for tracking and monitoring the development of the Detroit CNP; 2. to determine the extent to which CNP partner perceptions/knowledge of the structure of their network relate to perceived benefits vs. costs, commitments, social trust, satisfaction, sense of CNP ownership; and 3. To determine the extent to which partners engage in resource exchange in ways that may likely lead to a reduction in cancer health disparities. Respondents will be recruited from the three groups of CNP community partner organizations. We will measure the network at two points in time over a 12 month period of the pilot study. We will measure several structural parameters and constructs including key linker role identification, density/integration, reciprocity, multiplexity, and distance/zones. Based on the research on social capital, that as awareness of network relationships and ties increase, perceptions of social trust, commitment, benefits, costs, satisfaction, and sense of ownership of the CNP may also increase among partners. Results should help seed a larger R01 intervention effort to develop a sustainable network that mobilizes community-based participation in solutions for addressing urban cancer health disparities.