Abstract
BackgroundMental health is an important component of overall health and wellbeing and crucial for a happy and meaningful life. The prevalence of mental health problems amongst children and adolescent is high; with estimates suggesting 10-20% suffer from mental health problems at any given time. These mental health problems include internalising (e.g. depression and social anxiety) and externalising behavioural problems (e.g. aggression and anti-social behaviour). Although social capital has been shown to be associated with mental health/behavioural problems in young people, attempts to consolidate the evidence in the form of a review have been limited. This integrative systematic review identified and synthesised international research findings on the role and impact of family and community social capital on mental health/behavioural problems in children and adolescents to provide a consolidated evidence base to inform future research and policy development.MethodsNine electronic databases were searched for relevant studies and this was followed by hand searching. Identified literature was screened using review-specific inclusion/exclusion criteria, the data were extracted from the included studies and study quality was assessed. Heterogeneity in study design and outcomes precluded meta-analysis/meta-synthesis, the results are therefore presented in narrative form.ResultsAfter screening, 55 studies were retained. The majority were cross-sectional surveys and were conducted in North America (n = 33); seven were conducted in the UK. Samples ranged in size from 29 to 98,340. The synthesised results demonstrate that family and community social capital are associated with mental health/behavioural problems in children and adolescents. Positive parent–child relations, extended family support, social support networks, religiosity, neighbourhood and school quality appear to be particularly important.ConclusionsTo date, this is the most comprehensive review of the evidence on the relationships that exist between social capital and mental health/behavioural problems in children and adolescents. It suggests that social capital generated and mobilised at the family and community level can influence mental health/problem behaviour outcomes in young people. In addition, it highlights key gaps in knowledge where future research could further illuminate the mechanisms through which social capital works to influence health and wellbeing and thus inform policy development.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/2050-7283-2-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Mental health is an important component of overall health and wellbeing and crucial for a happy and meaningful life
As a consequence the approach taken to categorise mental health problems in young people commonly avoids the use of ICD-10/DSM-IV criteria, with preference being given to the terms internalising behavioural problems and externalising behavioural problems (Achenbach 1992, Almedom 2005, Xue et al 2005)
This review was part of a larger piece of work exploring the association between family social capital (FSC) and community social capital (CSC) and children and adolescents’ individual-level psychosocial health and wellbeing outcomes and we developed a single strategy to capture literature from across the range of outcomes, including mental health and behavioural problem outcomes
Summary
Mental health is an important component of overall health and wellbeing and crucial for a happy and meaningful life. The prevalence of mental health problems amongst children and adolescent is high; with estimates suggesting 10-20% suffer from mental health problems at any given time These mental health problems include internalising (e.g. depression and social anxiety) and externalising behavioural problems (e.g. aggression and anti-social behaviour). While debates continue about what constitutes mental health and wellbeing, mental health problems in adults are generally categorised using the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) or the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) (American Psychiatric Association 2000; World Health Organization 2011). As a consequence the approach taken to categorise mental health problems in young people commonly avoids the use of ICD-10/DSM-IV criteria, with preference being given to the terms internalising behavioural problems (including depression and social anxiety) and externalising behavioural problems (including aggression and anti-social behaviour) (Achenbach 1992, Almedom 2005, Xue et al 2005)
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