Understanding the Influence of Community-Level Determinants on Children’s Social and Emotional Well-Being: A Systems Science and Participatory Approach

Brenda T. Poon, Chris Atchison and Amanda Kwan
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Brenda T. Poon: School of Population and Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada
Chris Atchison: School of Population and Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada
Amanda Kwan: Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3, Canada

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 10, 1-17

Abstract: Healthy social and emotional development and longer-term outcomes for children are shaped by factors across the multiple levels (micro, meso, exo, macro) of a child’s environment. By employing a novel systems science and participatory approach, we were able to co-produce a series of causal loop diagrams that detail the complex relationships between variables operating at the community or neighborhood environment level (e.g., features of the built environment such as: housing type, access, availability, and location; parks and greenspace, facilities such as community services, and other service infrastructure such as transit), and highlight the individual and collective impacts these relationships can have on the subsystem surrounding a child’s social and emotional well-being. Our approach provides a unique lens of knowledge through which communities can identify key leverage points for action and (re)design of community spaces, practices, and policy.

Keywords: child development; early childhood; child mental health; child social and emotional well-being; systems science; community-based research; community capital; socio-ecological model; mixed methods; participatory approaches (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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