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Primary Submission Category: Social/relational factors
Correlates of Neighborhood Social Cohesion among Latinx/Hispanics: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis and Neighborhood Study
Authors: Sarah Diaz, Theresa Osypuk, Dustin Duncan,
Presenting Author: Sarah Diaz*
Background: In the neighborhood and health literature, there has been extensive work on the benefits of neighborhood social cohesion (NSC) on health in general United States (US) populations. However, despite that Latinxs are one of the fastest growing populations in the US, there is limited research on what features of immigrant assimilation (such as English language proficiency and perceived interpersonal discrimination) may affect their perceptions of NSC.
Methods: We used the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis, a multi-site population-based study, and its ancillary Neighborhood Study collected in 2010 and 2016 to examine the association between three indicators of acculturation and assimilation proxies (i.e. English language proficiency, perceived interpersonal discrimination, and density of social engagement destinations) with perceived NSC (M=3.56, SD=0.57) using multilevel linear regression models, among Latinx/Hispanic participants. Models were adjusted for age, gender, household family income, and nativity status. Effect modification by residential Latinx-White segregation (G* statistic) was assessed in final models.
Results: Results showed that experiencing interpersonal discrimination across 2 or more domains compared to none was significantly associated with a 0.10 lower NSC score (SE=0.05, p= 0.02) among Latinx/Hispanics in the fully adjusted model. English language proficiency and density of social engagement destinations were not associated with NSC, and Latinx residential segregation did not modify assimilation-NSC associations.
Conclusion: Given the often-beneficial health effects of NSC, our findings highlight an additional avenue by which interpersonal discrimination may negatively influence not only individuals but also neighborhoods and the communities that live in them. These results also highlight the importance of integrating interpersonal discrimination into the conceptualization of research on NSC in the US.