Community-based Participatory Research in the Lens of Social Capital: A Mental Health Literacy Promotion Project

TL;DR

This paper explores how community-based research can be improved by focusing on social connections and shared resources, especially in mental health projects in East Asia.

Contribution

The study introduces a new framework for community-based research grounded in social capital theory, tailored for East Asian contexts.

Findings

Six critical elements of CBPR were identified, grouped under bonding, bridging, and linking social capital.

Emotional meaningfulness and shared values are foundational for sustainable community engagement.

Equal partnerships and resource sharing across groups enhance collective action and community capacity.

Abstract

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is an approach that integrates community knowledge into evidence-based practice, enhancing intervention validity. While existing CBPR models were developed with a top-down approach in the West, their applicability in East Asian contexts and validity may be limited. CBPR principles emphasize resource and information sharing, yet current models overlook the synergy between network and resource sharing that influences collective actions and outcomes. This study aimed to address these gaps by co-creating a conceptual framework with stakeholders to understand CBPR’s operational mechanism from a social capital perspective. The research focused on a mental health literacy promotion project in an East Asian community, involving nine focus group discussions with older adults (n = 21) and social workers (n = 15), followed by co-analyzing and co-interpreting the data and findings with community stakeholders. Our data suggested six critical elements, which can be broadly grouped under the three primary forms of social capital, underlie the process of CBPR: emotional meaningfulness within a group as a foundation for sustainability, characterized by collective harmony, shared values and norms, and role models (bonding social capital); co-learning and co-production of resources across the groups, stimulated by the knowledge exchange environment (bridging social capital); and breaking hierarchical gaps and fostering equal partnership, induced by resource contributions from each stakeholder and the existence of super connectors (linking social capital). These elements promote network, skills, knowledge, and resource sharing among various stakeholders for collective actions for sustainability, community capacity building, and the common good.