Powerlessness, Empowerment, and Health
Implications for Health Promotion Programs
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 23359888 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Nina Wallerstein (0000-0002-1969-0799, University of New Mexico, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1992 |
| Volume | 6 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 197-205 |
| Publication date | 1992-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Journal of Health Promotion (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0890-1171 • E-ISSN: 2168-6602 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.4278/0890-1171-6.3.197 |
| PMID | 10146784 |
| OpenAlex | W2119443016 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 303 |
| References cited | 56 |
PURPOSE AND SCOPE. This article reviews the health and social science research relevant to both the role of powerlessness as a risk factor for disease, and the role of empowerment as a health-enhancing strategy. The research literature surveyed includes studies that address these key concepts from the fields of social epidemiology, occupational health, stress research, social psychology, community psychology, social support and networks, community competence and community organizing. Definitions are provided to operationalize these sometimes loosely-applied terms. IMPORTANT FINDINGS. Powerlessness, or lack of control over destiny, emerges as a broad-based risk factor for disease. Empowerment, though more difficult to evaluate, can also be demonstrated as an important promoter of health. MAJOR CONCLUSIONS. Given the importance and currency of these concepts of powerlessness and empowerment, a model of empowerment education is proposed for health-promotion practitioners. Measurement of empowerment raises issues for researchers on how to test the multiple personal and community changes that may result from an empowering education intervention.
Community health · Community psychology · Competence (human resources) · Empowerment · Health education · Health promotion · Operationalization · Political science · Public health · Public relations · Social determinants of health · Sociology · Community Health and Development · Health Policy Implementation Science · Medicine · Nursing · Psychology · School Health and Nursing Education · Social Psychology
Cidades Saudáveis no Brasil e os Processos Participativos
Health Disparity and Health Equity in India
What Makes a CSA a CSA
Invisible health participation research networks in the americas
Participation in mental health care by ethnic minority users
Empowerment issues in Japan's care industry
Evaluation of Changes in Individual Community-Related Empowerment in Community Health Promotion Interventions in Estonia
Understanding fatalism in HIV/Aids protection
Melding Data Collection Methodology with Community Assistance
Facilitating Indigenous women’s community participation in healthcare
Risky business
Qualidade de vida e políticas públicas no município de Feira de Santana
The Nature of Community Empowerment in Local Governance
A good spot”
The Theory and Practice of Empowerment in the Context of Family Health
Emerging Strategies in the Prevention of Domestic Violence
Social Contexts and Building Social Capital for Collective Action
Process and Outcomes of a Recursive, Dialogic Member Checking Approach
Construção participativa de descritores para avaliação dos núcleos de prevenção de acidentes e violência, Brasil
Attending to cardiovascular disease risk factors after incarceration
Sundhed som løftestang for inklusion, kapacitet, trivsel og udvikling i lokalsamfundet
The Process of Empowerment
A case-study of a curriculum development process in nutrition education using empowerment as organizational policy
Initial behavioural and attitudinal responses to influenza A, H1N1 (‘swine flu’)
Social Capital and Poor Communities
Defining Psychological Empowerment Construct
Gender relations, sexual behaviour, and risk of contracting sexually transmitted infections among women in union in Uganda
Introduction. Les compétences à s’orienter en question face à la complexité - Le contrôle volitionnel
Development of Multidimensional Scales to Measure Key Leadersʼ Perceptions of Community Capacity and Organizational Capacity for Teen Pregnancy Prevention
Challenges to participation in action research
Measuring community empowerment
Community Participation in Health Promotion
Canada's Active Living Policy
Empowerment
Reclaiming the social in community movements
Working with Toronto neighbourhoods toward developing indicators of community capacity
The protective effects of community involvement for HIV risk behavior
Planning for the sustainability of community-based health programs
Reintegrating women leaving jail into urban communities
Communication for Development and Social Change
Empowerment
Patient empowerment in theory and practice
The Relationship between Social Cohesion and Empowerment
Empowerment to reduce health disparities
Community participation
A Critical Examination of Community-Based Responses to Household Food Insecurity in Canada
Measuring Community Competence in the Mississippi Delta
Health Education and Community Empowerment
Fostering empowerment in online support groups
New Health Promotion Movement
Multiplying Health Gains
Promoting older adults’ well-being through Internet training and use
Implications of the Results of Community Intervention Trials
Identifying and Defining the Dimensions of Community Capacity to Provide a Basis for Measurement
Health Promotion and Empowerment
Community Participation in Health Systems Research
De l’« habilitation » au « pouvoir d’agir »
Ecological Models Revisited
Women's groups practising participatory learning and action to improve maternal and newborn health in low-resource settings
Challenges Incarcerated Women Face as They Return to Their Communities
Quality maternity care for every woman, everywhere
Introduction to Community Empowerment, Participatory Education, and Health
Translating Social Ecological Theory into Guidelines for Community Health Promotion
Women's Interlaced Freedoms
Latino Immigrants
Empowerment for healthy nutrition in German communities
How can asset-based approaches reduce inequalities? Exploring processes of change in England and Spain
How to change environmental conditions for health
Implementing health promotion tools in Australian Indigenous primary health care
Health promotion, the Ottawa Charter and 'developing personal skills'
The attitudes of patients and staff towards aspects of health promotion interventions in mental health services in Sweden
Wellbeing for homeless people
Australian health promotion practitioners' perceptions on evaluation of empowerment and participation
Teaching critical health literacy in the US as a means to action on the social determinants of health
Health, community and development
The Latino Migrant Worker HIV Prevention Program
"They Don't Trust Us; We're Just Kids." Views About Community From Predominantly Female Inner City Youth
An Unexpected, Yet Welcomed Outcome of the St. Louis Healthy Start Program
Political and social determinants of life expectancy in less developed countries
Perceptions of Social Support, Empowerment and Youth Risk Behaviors
Barriers and facilitators of implementing a community workshop series to mitigate maternal-child food insecurity
Empowering Chinese university health service providers to become mental health champions
How health mediation can function effectively on the fostering of healthcare utilization
European network for promoting the physical health of residents in psychiatric and social care facilities (HELPS)
Enhancing adoption of an alcohol abuse prevention program
Racism, Health, and Politics
Soft infrastructure
How Older Citizens in Germany Perceive and Handle Their Food Environment—A Qualitative Exploratory Study
From targets to ripples
An empowerment intervention for Indigenous communities
Psychological empowerment of politically empowered Saudi women
Adults who learn
The Catholic laity, clerical sexual abuse, and married priesthood
Enhancing sexual health and empowerment among migrant women sex workers
The impact of empowerment theory-based health education on Alzheimer’s disease informal caregivers
Patient Perspectives on Hospital Falls Prevention Education
Lay Health Promoters Empower Neighbourhoods-Results From a Community-Based Research Programme in Southern Sweden
Practice of Community Vocational Rehabilitation Empowerment for Patients with Mental Disorders —A Case Study on the “Walking with Love” Project in Y City
The impact of capacity building on community leadership for bui communities impacted by dam construction
Determinants of Young Men’s Help-Seeking Behavior
The Role of Self-Efficacy in Achieving Health Behavior Change
Learned helplessness
Empowerment Education
Aging and Health
Social class and coronary heart disease.
Self-efficacy and health
Race or class versus race and class
Poverty and Health Prospective Evidence From the Alameda County Study
Social Class, Susceptibility and Sickness
Social Class, Life Expectancy and Overall Mortality
Prevention Through Political Action and Social Change
The Fall of Public Man
Power and Powerlessness
Theory and Resistance in Education
Empowerment
The helping network approach
Stress and health
Stress and Health
Toward a theory of learned hopefulness
The return to community
Sense of community in the urban environment
Social support in the workplace
Taking aim on empowerment research
Terms of empowerment/exemplars of prevention
An introduction to citizen participation, voluntary organizations, and community development
Natural networks
Chronic stress, acute stress, and depressive symptoms
Citizen participation, perceived control, and psychological empowerment
Community competence
Job strain, work place social support, and cardiovascular disease
Job decision latitude, job demands, and cardiovascular disease
ESL for Action
In praise of paradox
Social Support and Health
Society, Personality, and Deviant Behavior
On The Meaning of Alienation
Myocardial infarction risk and psychosocial work environment
Health Behavior and Personal Autonomy
| Unique citing works | 303 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 9,18 |
| Citation span | 1993 - 2026 (34) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | Yes |
| Citation types | Neutral: 277 |