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SPOTLIGHT ON RESOURCES
Healthy neighborhoods have
become a hot topic in biobehavioral research, but this Spotlight zooms
in to focus on a slightly smaller but no less
complex level: the home. More than a physical shelter, the home is the
center of activities and relationships that can have profound effects
on their inhabitants’ health, according to a special collection
in the current Journal of Social Issues. “The Residential Context of Health” grew out of workshops convened with the European Network for Housing Research, according to editors Terry Hartig, Ph.D., of Uppsala University and Roderick Lawrence, Ph.D., of the University of Geneva. “Like others working in the environment-behavior field, we had recognized that psychological, social and culture factors figure significantly in relations between housing and health, yet such factors were not receiving sufficient attention in empirical research,” Hartig explained. The collection of articles explores the link between mental health and housing type, the health effects of renting versus owning and the stresses of telecommuting. Other topics include the health of home caregivers, socioeconomic status and residence type and the benefits and drawbacks of shared housing, particularly in light of U.S. welfare reforms in the late 1990s. Each paper also offers specific policy recommendations to strengthen the link between good health and home, but in an unusual twist, the issue concludes with a paper that stresses the limitations of such policies. The next residential health workshop of the European Network for Housing Research will be July 2-4, 2004, in Cambridge, England. HABIT readers interested in presenting original research at the workshop can contact Terry Hartig at Terry.Hartig@ibf.uu.se. |
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