Doctoral Dissertation Research: A mixed-methods study of vulnerability and social resilience

众所周知，资源稀缺造成的压力会影响人们的健康。然而，并不是所有人和社区的反应都是一样的。在该奖项支持的研究中，研究人员调查了产生这些可变结果的过程。美国和其他地方的研究表明，社区和个人层面的多种因素共同作用，产生健康结果。因此，只关注个人经济挑战的政策可能会忽视社区一级已经到位的缓冲措施的积极和消极影响，这并不令人惊讶。这项研究项目还培训了一名研究生收集实证科学数据，试图回答以下问题：社区如何应对经济压力？社区如何缓冲它，这些机制是否无意中助长了不健康的行为？这些问题的答案对于致力于改善当地健康结果的美国政策制定者至关重要。这项研究将由凯斯西储大学人类学博士生梅根·M·施密特-塞恩在珍妮特·W·麦格拉思博士的指导下进行。这项研究将在乌干达坎帕拉的两个社区进行。之所以选择乌干达进行这项研究，是因为当地政府最近劳工政策的变化导致许多人失业。因此，由于研究人员可以获得基线健康数据，这种情况是人们如何应对突如其来的经济压力、传统缓冲机制如何发挥作用以及这些机制是防止还是增加不良健康结果的自然实验。研究人员将使用定性和定量的人类学方法在一年内收集数据，包括：社区普查、调查、深度访谈和参与者观察。这些数据将使她能够评估更大的社会经济背景、个人与风险、复原力和脆弱性之间的特定路径。研究结果将有助于整合这些概念，并有助于科学理解经济压力影响健康的机制。然后，这可以成为美国改善政策的基础。结果将在学术和公共卫生环境中广泛传播，提供对同时具有弹性和脆弱性的因素以及获得弹性的潜在途径的洞察。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The stress caused by resource scarcity is known to impact people's health. However, not all people and communities respond the same. In the research supported by this award, the researcher investigates the processes that produce these variable outcomes. Research in the United States and elsewhere has shown that multiple factors, at the community as well as the individual level, work together to produce health outcomes. Therefore, it is not surprising that policies that focus only on individual economic challenges may miss the positive and negative effects of community-level buffers already in place. This research project, which also trains a graduate student in the collection of empirical scientific data, seeks to answer the questions: How do communities respond to economic stress? How do communities buffer against it, and do these mechanisms unintentionally facilitate unhealthy behavior? The answers to these questions are of critical importance to U.S policy makers committed to improving local health outcomes.The research will be undertaken by Case Western Reserve University anthropology doctoral student, Megan M. Schmidt-Sane, under the supervision of Dr. Janet W. McGrath. The research will be conducted in two communities in Kampala, Uganda. Uganda was chosen for the research because recent changes in local government labor policies have put many people out of work. Therefore, because the researchers have access to baseline health data, the situation is a natural experiment in how people respond to sudden economic stress, how traditional buffering mechanisms are put into play, and whether these mechanisms prevent or increase poor health outcomes. The researcher will collect data over one year using a mixture of qualitative and quantitative anthropological methods, including: community censuses, surveys, in-depth interviews, and participant observation. These data will allow her to assess specific pathways between the larger socio-economic context, individuals, and risk, resilience, and vulnerability. Findings will facilitate integrating these concepts as well as scientific understanding of the mechanisms by which economic stress affects health. This can then become the basis for improved policy in the United States. Results will be disseminated widely in academic and public health settings, providing insight into the factors that are simultaneously resilient and vulnerable, and the potential pathways to resilience.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.