Do bonding and bridging social capital have differential effects on self-rated health? A community based study in Japan

Toshihide Iwase,Takeo Fujiwara,Hiroyuki Doi,Ichiro Kawachi,Etsuji Suzuki,Soshi Takao

doi:10.1136/jech.2010.115592

Abstract

BackgroundFew studies have examined the potential difference in the relationship between bonding versus bridging social capital and health outcomes. We sought to examine the association between these different types of...

Highlights

Social capital has been conceptualised and measured according to two different approaches.[1]
A number of investigations have sought to examine the association between social capital and various health outcomes.4e11 the findings across these studies have not been consistent with several studies reporting null findings.12e14 Several alternative explanations have been put forwards to account for the heterogeneous findings across studies, including (a) the fact that the studies were conducted at different levels of spatial aggregation so that different mechanisms of action may be involved at each level, (b) the studies used inconsistent measures to operationalise the construct of social capital, (c) studies conducted in more egalitarian contexts tend to report null results, suggesting some type of constrained variability in the ‘exposure’ variable,[15] and (d) the extent to which residual confounding is handled varies substantially between studies
One shortcoming of the empirical social capital literature that has been repeatedly cited is the failure to distinguish between the effects of bonding versus bridging social capital.1 16e18 Bonding social capital refers to networks of dense ties between members of a group who are similar to each other with respect to social class, race/ ethnicity and other forms of social status, while bridging social capital refers to social connections that span across such lines of status

Summary

Introduction

Social capital has been conceptualised and measured according to two different approaches.[1]. Linking social capital has been used to refer to connections between individuals and groups with larger social institutions.[1 17] The theoretical importance of distinguishing between these types of capital is underscored by the few studies to date, which suggested that they have different associations with health outcomes. Only three studies have explicitly distinguished between bonding and bridging social capital and their relationships to health outcomes. Mitchell and LaGory[19] examined the association of bonding versus bridging social capital in a disadvantaged, minority, community in Birmingham, USA. Few studies have examined the potential difference in the relationship between bonding versus bridging social capital and health outcomes. We distinguished between bonding and bridging social capital by asking participants about their perceived homogeneity (with respect to gender, age and occupation) of the groups they belonged to.

Methods

Results

Conclusion