Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Using Social Media To Engage Toronto Communities For Resiliency And Stress Planning, Martha Ta

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

As Toronto’s low-income areas grow, the city’s neighbourhoods experience a segregation by low- and high-income, contributing to chronic stress as environmental determinants and leading to negative health outcomes and chronic diseases. This study identified Crescent Town as one of the Toronto neighbourhoods with potentially high levels of chronic emotional stress through an analysis of emotions indicated by Tweets, as well as triangulation with administrative data describing relevant neighbourhood indicators. Crescent Town community members (n=23) were engaged using concept mapping to identify existing neighbourhood stressors and assets and empowered to strategize solutions. The ten-cluster solution created with six clusters describing neighbourhood …