Social capital is associated with decreased risk of hunger

Katie S Martin, Beatrice L Rogers, John T Cook and Hugh M Joseph

Social Science & Medicine, 2004, vol. 58, issue 12, 2645-2654

Abstract: This article explores whether social capital--a measure of trust, reciprocity and social networks--is positively associated with household food security, independent of household-level socioeconomic factors. Interviews were conducted in 330 low-income households from Hartford, Connecticut. Social capital was measured using a 7-item Likert scale and was analyzed using household- and community-level scores. Household food security and hunger were measured using the US Household Food Security Module. [chi]2 tests were used to examine associations between social capital, food security and household demographic characteristics. Logistic regression was used to examine whether household- and community-level social capital decreases the odds of household hunger, and to estimate which household characteristics increase the likelihood of having social capital. Consistent with our hypotheses, social capital, at both the household and community levels, is significantly associated with household food security in these data. Community-level social capital is significantly associated with decreased odds of experiencing hunger (adjusted odds ratio (AOR)=0.47 [95% CI 0.28, 0.81], P

Keywords: Social; capital; Food; security; Hunger; Community (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2004
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (52)

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