Journal of Health and Social Behavior · 2011 · 114 citations · 25 references
Public HealthEnvironmental SciencesEnvironmental Social ScienceCommunity-based Participatory ResearchEnvironmental HealthEnvironmental PsychologyCitizen ScienceEnvironmental ExposuresHousehold Chemical ExposuresParticipatory Action ResearchPublic Perceptions Of SciencePublic Understanding Of ScienceBeliefs About PollutionCommunity Context EffectsCommunity-based Participatory Research MethodologyContextEnvironmental ExperienceEnvironmental Health KnowledgeExposure ScienceHousehold Toxic Exposure History
The study investigates how participants respond to receiving household exposure results and how their exposure experience is shaped by community context, the report‑back process, and activist collective actions. The authors conduct a thematic analysis of participants’ expectations, learning, trust, and action to explore these contextual influences. Results show that participants use scientific findings to confirm existing knowledge of urban industrial toxins, learn about new pollutant sources, and that addressing their science understanding is essential for policy and social change.
This article examines participants’ responses to receiving their results in a study of household exposure to endocrine disrupting compounds and other pollutants. The authors study how the “exposure experience”—the embodied, personal experience and understanding of chronic exposure to environmental pollutants—is shaped by community context and the report-back process itself. In addition, the authors investigate an activist, collective form of exposure experience. The authors analyze themes of expectations and learning, trust, and action. The findings reveal that while participants interpret scientific results to affirm lay knowledge of urban industrial toxics, they also absorb new information regarding other pollutant sources. By linking the public understanding of science literature to the illness and exposure experience concepts, this study unravels the complex relationship between lay experience and lay understanding of science. It also shows that to support policy development and/or social change, community-based participatory research efforts must attend to participants’ understanding of science.
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