Social capital and mental health problems among Syrian refugee adolescents: The mediating roles of perceived social support and post-traumatic symptoms

Abstract

Social capital is one of the prominent components of refugee mental health. However, its role on mental health is poorly understood. The aim of the present study was to investigate the nature of the association between social capital and mental health problems in refugee adolescents. A cross-sectional study with three hundred twenty-one 12- to 18-year-old Syrian refugee adolescents was conducted in Turkey. We administered the Arabic versions of the following instruments in school settings: The Social Trust, Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS), The Children's Impact of Event Scale (CRIES-8) and The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). The mediation analyses with Hayes' PROCESS Macro revealed that perceived social support and the intensity of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms fully mediated the relationship between social capital and mental health problems. The results suggested social trust's two distinct functions which impair the likelihood of mental health problems: (a) social trust might help to facilitate perceived social support from family and friends and (b) social trust might impair the intensity of traumatic experiences.