Explaining the Impact of Social Capital and Psychological Capital on Adolescents' Quality of Life (Study of High School Male Students in Babol)

Abstract

One of the necessities of life in the modern era is to pay attention to the quality of life. The quality of life is defined and identified in four dimensions: mental health, physical health, environmental health and the quality of social relationships. This research study was descriptive-causal employing the survey method and the statistical population of the study was high school male students in Babol with a sample size of 350 people. Inspired by Lutz's psychological theory, psychological capital variable with four dimensions of hope, resilience, optimism and self-efficacy and social capital variable also inspired by the theories of Putnam, Coleman and Bourdieu with three dimensions of social relations, trust, and Participation were measured. The findings of the study showed that the quality of life were estimated to be low in about 12 percent of respondents, middle in 26 percent of them, and high in 62 percent of them. The findings of the study in evaluating the hypotheses indicate that psychological capital and all four dimensions have an impact on the quality of life, and this effect is positive and statistically significant. The results of regression analysis and path analysis showed that social capital had the highest share and influence among all predictors of quality of life and this effect was controlled by all other variables. That is, for one unit (standard deviation) of change in the social capital variable, one would expect that the quality of life among students would increase by 30 units. , For one unit of change in student family income, the quality of life changed 14 units, and for one unit of change in psychological capital, one can expect 11 units of change in the quality of life of students.