The relationship between social cohesion and empowerment: Support and new implications for theory

Empowerment theory represents an expansive view of individual and collectiv e behavior that includes the active participation of individuals and groups in altering and shaping the socioenvironmental context. Critical to health educators are local interventions that yield participation of community me mbers and empowerment for participants. The concept of social cohesion embr aces participation but expands this behavioral emphasis to incorporate noti ons of trust, connectedness, and civic engagement. This study presents two data sets on the relationship of participation to empowerment. The first re plicates and extends previous research by examining participation with inte ractional as well as intrapersonal empowerment. Second is the examination o f how the quality of the participatory experience-the cohesive nature of pa rticipation-is related to interactional and intrapersonal empowerment. Find ings support and extend previous findings, reliably cluster residents by th e degree of connectedness in their participatory experiences, and reveal th at social cohesion is related to intrapersonal empowerment.