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Here's an easy way to improve your health: trust your neighbors. Anew study from the University of Missouri shows that increasingtrust in neighbors is associated with better self-reported health. "I examined the idea of 'relative position,' or where one fits intothe income distribution in their local community, as it applies toboth trust of neighbors and self-rated health," said EileenBjornstrom, an assistant professor of sociology in the MU Collegeof Arts and Science. "Because human beings engage in interpersonalcomparisons in order to gauge individual characteristics, it hasbeen suggested that a low relative position, or feeling that youare below another person financially, leads to stress and negative emotions such as shame, hostility and distrust, andthat health suffers as a consequence. While most people aren'taware of how trust impacts them, results indicated that trust was afactor in a person's overall health." In the study, Bjornstrom examined the 2001 Los Angeles Family andNeighborhood Survey. Contrary to expectations, she found thatrespondents with a higher income, relative to their community, weremore likely to be distrustful of their neighbors. Simultaneously,while taking into account factors such as level of education,income, and age, people who reported that "their neighbors can betrusted" also reported better health on average. "I was surprised about the direction in which relative position waslinked to distrust. If affluent individuals are less likely totrust their poorer neighbors, it could be beneficial to attempt toovercome some of the distrust that leads to poor health,"Bjornstrom said. "It is possible that shared community resourcesthat promote interaction, such as sidewalks and parks, could helpbridge the neighborhood trust gap, and also promote health andwell-being. Residents of all economic statuses might then benefitif community cohesion was increased. Additional research canaddress those questions." While there was not a direct link between low relative positionamong neighbors and better health, Bjornstrom believes that furtherstudy needs to occur in different contexts. She believes thatresearch on relative position in the workplace or among socialnetworks would provide greater insight. "For example, relative position at work could matter for healthbecause it might be associated with autonomy or other benefits,"Bjornstrom said. Bjornstrom's study, "The Neighborhood Context of Relative Position,Trust and Self-Rated Health," appears in the journal Social Science& Medicine. Additional References Citations. We are high quality suppliers, our products such as China Wool Felt Hats , China Sinamay Base for oversee buyer. To know more, please visits Ladies' Fascinators.
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