Assessing the impact of illness, caring and ethnicity onsocial activity

It has long been accepted that lack of social participation in wider society is oneaspect or one definition of poverty. Current concerns with the extent anddistribution of social capital as both a measure of a good society and as meansto upward mobility also emphasise the importance of social contacts andnetworks to the well-being of individuals and communities. While research hasoften focused on ‘civic participation’ and the measurement of trust, moreinformal social bonds are also a crucial part of individuals’ social capital.Moreover, informal social capital or social participation might be particularlyimportant for those whose circumstances make them already more vulnerable tomarginalisation, exclusion or poverty. For example, social interaction has beenargued to be conducive to better outcomes for those with health problems; andthere is an extensive literature which aims to chart and explain the role of‘ethnic capital’ in the life chances of minority ethnic groups. I use the BritishHome Office Citizenship Survey 2001 for England and Wales to explore theimpact on four aspects of lack of social engagement of long-term illness, caringfor someone with such an illness, and ethnicity. Controlling for a range ofcharacteristics and examining the relationships separately for men and womenthere is evidence that between them, the four measures reveal an underlyingpropensity for reduced social contact. Other things being equal, illness has littleassociation with reduced social participation, but caring does seem to affectopportunities for sociability. Members of some ethnic groups are less likely toengage in neighbourly social visiting than others, and these differences are littleaffected by income level. By contrast differences in ‘going out’ across groupscan largely be explained by differences in income. Overall, social engagementamong male Bangladeshis and to a lesser extent Pakistanis is high, whereasBlack Africans and Black Caribbeans, especially women, are notable for theirlack of opportunities for social engagem