Village Identification, Village Support and Collective Efficacy Among People Living in Poverty in Nepal

Social cure research shows that community identification can be a source of beneficial social resources. However, extreme poverty may undermine social cure processes, in a type of social curse. In our study, we examined whether village identification is a source of collective efficacy among disempowered ethnic groups in Nepal. Furthermore, we investigated whether this relationship is mediated by village support rooted in village identification. Drawing on social cure insights, we present cross-sectional survey data from participants (N = 230) living in 10 villages in four districts in rural Nepal. The analyses presented include three ethnic groups, and Dalits are the majority (77.8%). Of these, 58.1% were males and 41.9% females; mean age was 38.76 (SD = 14.22). Most participants, 52%, had no education (including 6 illiterate participants). Despite chronic marginalisation, our mediation model shows that among these disempowered community members, village identification is associated with collective efficacy and that this relationship is mediated by a shared sense of village support. In line with social cure predictions, we found beneficial collective resources available among marginalised village dwellers. Although poverty and concentrated structural disadvantage can be disempowering, isolating social curses, the rural communities explored here were also social cures and a source of collective efficacy. These social conditions may provide the necessary foundations to support community development interventions to challenge the enduring injustices experienced by such communities.