Is social capital associated with coping, self-esteem, health and quality of life in long-term social assistance recipients?

Abstract

Being a long-term social assistant recipient may in the long run have an impact on the individual's perception of health and quality of life, which in turn may become barriers to the return to work. The purpose of this article is to explore the relationships between social capital, coping, self-esteem, health and quality of life in a sample of people receiving social assistance, living in various municipalities in Norway. The present study has a cross-sectional, questionnaire and survey design, including a sample of 451 long-term social assistance recipients from 14 municipalities in Norway (response rate 53%). Different self-reported measures assessing social capital, coping, self-esteem, health and quality of life were used. To evaluate multivariate relationships, multiple linear hierarchical regression analyses were performed. The majority of the sample was men (58%), had education up to secondary school level (43%), and were married or registered partner (23%), with a mean age of 34 (SD 10.9; range 18-60). Demographic and social factors explain 7% of the variance in social capital. In the bivariate analysis, higher levels of social capital are significantly related to higher levels of coping (r = 0.30), self-esteem (r = 0.20), mental health (r = 0.30) and quality of life (r = -0.21). In the final regression model, with quality of life as the dependent variable, only coping, self-esteem and mental health are significantly related to quality of life. This model explains 40% of the variance in quality of life. This study indicates that social capital is associated with health and quality of life through coping and self-esteem in a sample of long-term social assistance recipients.