Purpose

Mental health literacy (MHL) is the ability to understand health information originating from different sources. Little is known about ethnic differences in sources for health information, and the effect these differences has on elderly MHL. In this paper, we focus on the social networks (i.e. social connections) of elderly people from different ethnic groups, and investigate the effect these networks have on MHL. Specifically, we focus on the ethnic diversity of one's peers (ethnic diversity) as a network characteristic that can interplay with his\her MHL.

Design/methodology/approach

The data used in this study were gathered using a survey among elderly (over the age of 60) Native Israeli Jews (N = 147) and Immigrant Jews from the Former Soviet Union (FSU, N = 131). The survey was used to assess our participants MHL, online and offline sources of mental health information and mental health service utilization. Interviews were also conducted with each participant. The interview purpose was to map the participants' social network (using a sociogram), while indicating the attributes of the participant's peers (age, gender, ethnicity, etc.) and the nature of the interaction (online vs. offline, strength of the tie, etc.). A set of hierarchal regression analyses were then used to examine which social network attributes are correlated with MHL levels.

Findings

Our findings shows that ethnic diversity within the social networks of Immigrants from the FSU contributed to their MHL more so than for native-born Jews. Specifically, face to face maintained connections with individuals from diverse ethnic groups lead to increased knowledge about how to search for mental health information. Online maintained connections with individuals from diverse ethnic groups, lead to increase attitudes that promote recognition of mental health related issues and appropriate help-seeking.

Originality/value

Understanding the interplay between the ethnic diversity among one's peers and his/her MHL offers an important additional prism of examining MHL; moving beyond the individual's characteristics and examining his/her social connections as well. The relevancy of these findings for reducing MHL inequalities between native-born and elderly migrants, as well as for ethnic minorities is discussed.

中文翻译：

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社会多样性在增强老年人心理健康素养中的作用

目的

心理健康素养（MHL）是理解源自不同来源的健康信息的能力。人们对健康信息来源中的种族差异以及这些差异对老年人MHL的影响知之甚少。在本文中，我们重点研究了来自不同族裔的老年人的社交网络（即社交联系），并研究了这些社交网络对MHL的影响。具体来说，我们将重点放在同伴的种族多样性（种族多样性）上，作为可以与其MHL互动的网络特征。

设计/方法/方法

本研究中使用的数据是通过对老年人（60岁以上），以色列土著犹太人（N  = 147）和前苏联移民犹太人（FSU，N  = 131）进行的调查收集的。该调查用于评估我们的参与者MHL，心理健康信息的在线和离线来源以及心理健康服务的利用率。还对每个参与者进行了访谈。访谈的目的是绘制参与者的社交网络（使用社交图），同时指出参与者的同龄人的属性（年龄，性别，种族等）以及互动的性质（在线还是离线，互动强度）。领带等）。然后使用一组层次回归分析来检查哪些社交网络属性与MHL水平相关。

发现

我们的研究结果表明，来自FSU的移民社会网络中的种族多样性对他们的MHL的贡献比对本地出生的犹太人的贡献更大。具体来说，与来自不同种族的个体保持面对面的联系会导致人们增加有关如何搜索心理健康信息的知识。在线与来自不同族裔群体的人保持联系，从而导致人们提高了对心理健康相关问题的认识并促进了适当寻求帮助的态度。

创意/价值

了解同龄人的种族多样性与他/她的MHL之间的相互影响，为检验MHL提供了重要的附加棱镜；超越个人的特征并检查他/她的社交关系。讨论了这些发现与减少本地出生和老年人移民之间以及少数民族之间的MHL不平等的相关性。