Document Type
Article
Publication Date
11-2023
Abstract
Background
Research on associations between social integration and wellbeing holds promise to inform policy and practice targets for health promotion. Yet, studies of social connection too frequently rely on overly simplistic measures and give inadequate attention to manifestation and meanings of social integration across diverse groups. We use the term socio-cultural integration to describe expanded assessment of both social and cultural aspects of belonging and connection.
Methods
We examined 7 distinct indicators of socio-cultural integration, identified heterogeneous patterns of responses across these indicators using latent profile analysis, and determined their relevance for wellbeing using survey data from a study with Indigenous communities in the U.S. and Canada. Wellbeing was measured using holistic ratings of self-rated physical, emotional, and spiritual health.
Results
Latent profile analysis (LPA) of responses to the 7 socio-cultural integration variables yielded a 3-class model, which we labeled low, moderate, and high integration. Mean scores on self-rated physical, mental and spiritual health were significantly associated with LPA profiles, such that those in the low integration group had the lowest self-rated health scores and those in the high integration group had the highest health scores. With the exception of similar ratings of cultural identification between low and moderate integration profiles, patterns of responses to the diverse socio-cultural integration measures varied significantly across the 3 latent profiles.
Conclusions
Results underscore the importance of expanding our assessment of social integration with attention to the interrelationships of family, community, culture, and our environment. Such concepts align with Indigenous conceptions of wellbeing, and have relevance for health across cultures. More concretely, the indicators of socio-cultural integration used in this study (e.g., cultural identity, having a sense of connectedness to nature or family, giving or receiving social support) represent malleable targets for inclusion in health promotion initiatives.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-13395-3
Rights
© The Author(s) 2022. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativeco mmons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Melissa Walls, Dane Hautala, Ashley Cole, et al.. "Socio-cultural integration and holistic health among Indigenous young adults" (2023). Indigenous Health Faculty Publications. 28.
https://commons.und.edu/ih-fac/28