Running head : PREDICTORS OF ENGAGEMENT IN THE COMMUNITY Predictors of Engagement in the Community Affected by HIV and AIDS

The goal of this study was to explore factors that lead to engagement in the community affected by HIV and AIDS (CAHA). An additional goal of this study was to better understand the relationships between psychological sense of community (PSOC) and social identification (SI), and their connections to two classes of motivations: community concern motivations (CCM) and esteem enhancement motivations (EEM). These constructs predicted two types of engagement in CAHA: AIDS activism and intentions for future participation in community related activity. Analyses were conducted on existing data (Omoto, 2005). The results indicate that PSOC and SI should be considered as independent constructs that uniquely explain community engagement. CCM were found to mediate these relationships, potentially explaining their links. Predictors of Community Engagement 3 Predictors of Engagement in the Community Affected by HIV and AIDS The community affected by HIV and AIDS (CAHA) most prominently exists as a source of social, emotional, and practical support for persons with HIV or AIDS. CAHA also includes persons using community outreach services (like friends and family of persons with HIV or AIDS), philanthropists, activists, and persons who work or volunteer in the community, such as at an AIDS Service Organization. With so many people involved, the community presumably acts as a force in promoting understanding and awareness of the AIDS pandemic, and positive social action such as volunteering for HIV and AIDS related causes. This study considers engagement, or active awareness and participation, in CAHA (cf. Omoto & Malsch, 2005; Snyder & Omoto, 2007). It focuses on psychological motivations for engagement in the community as consequences of two constructs, psychological sense of community and social identification. In general, psychological sense of community and social identification describe hypothetical psychological processes of how individuals perceive and interact with their social environment (Brewer & Brown, 1998; McMillan & Chavis, 1986; Omoto & Malsch; Tajfel & Turner, 1986). The benefits of community engagement Community engagement can have powerful personal and social impacts, and is often viewed as a source of personal wellness and a general indicator of societal health (e.g., Omoto & Malsch, 2005; Putnam, 2000). It is typically associated with positive outcomes that benefit all members of a community on personal and social levels. Among other benefits, these positive outcomes include an improved sense of well-being, a greater sense of social support and satisfaction, an ability to better cope with stress, increased availability of human resources such as volunteers, and more civic participation like voting and attending town-hall meetings Predictors of Community Engagement 4 (Bachrach & Zautra, 1985; Obst & White, 2005; Zaff & Devlin, 1998). Engagement in CAHA, specifically, is beneficial because it potentially improves individuals’ awareness of and access to HIV and AIDS related services, increases the extent of services offered, increases the number of volunteers and paid support staff, provides more opportunities to interact with persons in support roles, and generally enhances the community’s outreach ability (e.g., offering HIV and AIDS prevention programs). In short, more engagement in CAHA improves the resources available to the individuals who interact with it, and makes it easier to manage a serious public health issue. Functional approaches to motivation This study draws on an assumption that some of the psychological factors that can promote engagement in CAHA can be generalized from psychological factors that have been found to promote volunteerism in CAHA. That is, since volunteerism is basically a form of community engagement, it seems reasonable that some of the processes motivating it may overlap with the processes that motivate other types of community engagement, like seeking HIV and AIDS related services, participating in politics related to HIV and AIDS, or even maintaining employment in the community. Volunteerism for the community affected by HIV and AIDS has been studied from the perspective of a functional approach to motivation (Omoto & Snyder, 1995). Functional approaches to motivation assert that individuals engage in similar behaviors for different psychological reasons. In volunteerism, for example, these reasons include making social contacts, earning professional experience, learning about social issues, and other reasons (Clary et al., 1998; Houle, Sagarin, & Kaplan, 2005). Two categories of motivations have been identified as important to stimulating HIV and AIDS volunteerism: community concern motivations (CCM) and esteem enhancement motivations (EEMs, Omoto & Predictors of Community Engagement 5 Snyder). CCM refer to motivations to act because of feelings of connection, responsibility, or commitment to the community. EEM refer to motivations to act based on a desire to feel better about the self. These motivations were specifically selected for this study because their basic features, a desire to help the community or a desire to help the self, seem to overlap with some of the core tenets of psychological sense of community and social identification, respectively. Psychological sense of community Psychological sense of community (PSOC) generally refers to a multifaceted construct that helps individuals to make sense of their social environment (i.e., community). It is primarily a set of perceptual and affective processes including a conception or awareness of a given community, feelings of belonging to the community and a connection to the issues that support it (e.g., the AIDS pandemic), a perception that this belongingness holds some mutual value to fellow community members, and a belief that all members’ needs will be met through commitment and involvement (McMillan & Chavis, 1986; Omoto & Malsch, 2005). PSOC is often positively associated with some of the aforementioned outcomes of community engagement, such as greater perceptions of social support, and certain measures of subjective well-being, particularly happiness (Davidson & Cotter, 1991; Hill, 1996). One survey study reported, for example, that PSOC helped recent South African immigrants to Australia stay connected with other South African immigrants sharing a similar experience, and this enhanced sense of social support made their cultural transition easier (Sonn, 2002). PSOC can also indicate how well individuals can cope with a given situation. In another survey report, for instance, PSOC was described as a protective factor from the negative aspects of residing in low-income urban neighborhoods (Brodsky, O'Campo, & Aronson, 1999). PSOC lends itself very well to a consideration as a motivating factor of engagement in Predictors of Community Engagement 6 CAHA. If individuals perceive their connection and involvement with CAHA to benefit the community, a concern for CAHA should be a primary motivation for engagement. Thus, CCM hypothetically should result from PSOC, and subsequently lead to actual engagement in the community. Social Identification Social identification (SI) may also be considered a perceptual process that helps individuals make sense of their social environment. SI is primarily focused on explaining human motivation as a result of organizing one’s world into social categories (Reicher, 2004). Individuals define their self-image based on their membership in various groups, forming their social identity (Tajfel & Turner, 1986). Groups are conceptualized through perceptions of membership in the same social category as a collection of other individuals. SI often results in group-based social hierarchies as individuals weigh the value of their affiliations in comparison to non-members and members of other groups (Brewer & Brown, 1998; Stets & Burke, 2000). For example, members of a group might consider themselves as “us,” and non-members of the group as “them,” and determine their social status by contrasting themselves to individuals in other groups. Individuals’ perception of status not only affects their basic definition of self, then, but probably has implications for their sense of self-worth. Therefore, the “us versus them” mentality suggested by SI presumably impacts individuals’ self-esteem, and consequently their motivation to protect or improve their self-esteem (viz. EEM, Brewer, 2007; Snyder & Omoto, 1992). There are a variety of reasons to expect EEM to produce community engagement. Individuals do not always retain the ability or the desire to simply change their status (e.g., by moving to a “better” group or community). Persons with HIV or AIDS, for example, require Predictors of Community Engagement 7 services that they can only find in CAHA. Such individuals may participate in communityactivities to maintain their sense of self-worth, especially when this participation allows them to feel a sense of solidarity with other members, a sense of accomplishment at the their achievements, or other positive sensations. In further example, it has been reported that HIV and AIDS volunteers often feel negative social pressures of the stigma surrounding the AIDS pandemic (Snyder, Omoto, & Crain, 1999). Even while doing what they believe to be good works, the esteem they garner from their experiences is threatened based on the perceptions of others. Their participation in volunteerism, then, becomes a vehicle to reinforce or enhance their sense of self-worth by focusing on the positive and rewarding features of their engagement, rather than the perceptions of non-members. In other words, SI processes for individuals associated with CAHA leads to EEM, and subsequently lead to actual engagement in the community, at least hypothetically. The relationship between the constructs Although PSOC and SI are theoretically distinct variables, they do have some conceptual overlap. For example, both PSOC and SI pote