Designing Social Interventions to Improve Newcomer Adjustment: Insights from the Indian Sex Worker Community

Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, Vol. 32 (2) Fall 2013, 271-285

16 Pages Posted: 26 Jan 2016

See all articles by Nita Umashankar

Nita Umashankar

Georgia State University

Raji Srinivasan

University of Texas at Austin - McCombs School of Business

Date Written: November 13, 2013

Abstract

Nonprofit organizations use social interventions to improve the negative circumstances of marginalized people in subsistence markets. Unfortunately, such intervention efforts are frequently characterized by poor outcomes. Aiming to identify characteristics of effective social interventions, the authors examine the impact of contact intensity and cohort size, in conjunction with external and internal peer influence, on the newcomer adjustment (i.e., socialization) of marginalized people in subsistence markets to social interventions. The authors test the framework using data from members of the sex worker community in India who completed a vocational training program intended to improve their employability outside the sex trade. The findings indicate that the effects of social intervention characteristics, contact intensity, and cohort size on newcomer adjustment to the intervention are positively and negatively affected by the influence of external and internal peers; newcomer adjustment, in turn, influences employment outcomes. The authors conclude with a discussion of the importance of considering social intervention characteristics and social-related factors to help marginalized people in subsistence markets adjust to the interventions' proposed behavioral changes.

Keywords: social marketing, social intervention, newcomer adjustment, subsistence markets, peer influence, socialization

Suggested Citation

Umashankar, Nita and Srinivasan, Raji, Designing Social Interventions to Improve Newcomer Adjustment: Insights from the Indian Sex Worker Community (November 13, 2013). Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, Vol. 32 (2) Fall 2013, 271-285, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2721514 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2721514

Nita Umashankar (Contact Author)

Georgia State University ( email )

P.O. Box 4050
Atlanta, GA 30303-3083
United States

Raji Srinivasan

University of Texas at Austin - McCombs School of Business ( email )

Austin, TX 78712
United States

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
58
Abstract Views
1,540
Rank
776,309
PlumX Metrics