Determinants of trust in low-income Hispanics

Background: Trust reflects the tendency of individuals to cooperate and affects the performance of all institutions in society as it improves the efficiency of governments and institutions. Additionally, trust has been shown to have a powerful influence on health. Trust affects health at the individual level with more trusting individuals tending to be healthier and at the population level through the positive influence of social capital. In the literature, it has been shown that trust tends to be lower in minority communities, in particular among Hispanics. Given the relevance of trust to the functioning of the economy and to population health, it is particularly important to investigate the determinants of trust in Hispanics. In this study we investigate individual and neighborhood predictors of trust in low-income Hispanic communities in Texas. Methods: We used multilevel models with data from surveys on 1850 Hispanic origin individuals nested in 77 block groups. Individual level variables are age, gender, immigrant, Spanish speaker, education, income, associate with other races/ethnicities, perceived personal opportunities, perceived racism, social support, and religiosity. Neighborhood level variables were impoverishment index, income inequality, racial/ethnic fragmentation, language fragmentation, collective efficacy and disorder. Results: Age, being male, education, and perceived social support are positively associated with trust. Income inequality and language fragmentation are negatively and collective efficacy is positively associated with trust. Conclusions: It is important to develop interventions to improve trust among the Hispanic population. This study identifies points of intervention.