Domains Of Social Capital Research Articles

The relationship between social capital and inflammatory biomarkers in early adulthood: A longitudinal study.

Higher levels of social capital (SC) are associated with better health status. However, there is little evidence of the impact of SC on biological health outcomes in the early ages. To identify the association between SC in adolescence and inflammation levels in early adulthood. Prospective study using data from 2435 participants from the Epidemiological Health Investigation of Teenagers in Porto cohort. SC was assessed at age 17 through a self-administered questionnaire, and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) and leucocytes were measured in a fasting blood sample at 17 and 21 years-old. A principal components analysis was performed to identify the domains of SC. Simple linear regressions were performed to assess the association between SC components and inflammatory status at 17 and 21years old. Pathway analysis was performed to assess the direct, indirect, and total effects of SC on hs-CRP and leucocyte levels. We did not find a significant total effect between SC at 17 years-old and hs-CRP at 21 years-old. However, the Trust/Reciprocity dimension showed a significant direct effect between SC and hs-CRP levels at 21 (β=-0.065, 95% CI: -0.129; -0.001), as well as a significant total effect (β=-0.075, 95% CI: -0.139; -0.011). Regarding leucocyte levels, total SC at 17 years-old was associated with leucocytes levels at 21 (β=-0.115, 95% CI: -0.205; -0.024). Significant direct (β=-0.104, 95% CI: -0.194; -0.014) and total effect (β=-0.107, 95% CI: -0.199; -0.015) of Trust/Reciprocity on leucocyte levels were observed. Adolescents with higher SC have a low inflammatory level in early adulthood, especially those with greater levels of trust/reciprocity.

Associations of screen use with physical activity and social capital amid the COVID-19 pandemic: A network analysis of youths in China

Inconsistent correlations of screen use with physical activity (PA) and social capital (SC) in youths have been observed in existing cross-sectional studies. This study aimed to elucidate associations among variables in screen use, PA, and SC domains during COVID-19, to improve the prediction and prevention of suboptimal health status in youths. An online survey based on the nationwide COVID-19 Impact on Lifestyle Change Survey (COINLICS) was conducted in China, and 10,082 youths reported their screen use, PA, and SC in the months immediately before, during, and after the COVID-19 lockdown. Cross-sectional and longitudinal network models were used to identify associations of variables in domains of screen use with PA and SC. Effect modifications of bridges and predictors in the associations were examined. The network models suggested that individual SC was a bridge that strongly connected other types of SC, and domains of screen use and PA before lockdown, while phone use became such a bridge during and after lockdown. More PC/TV use before lockdown predicted less household-related PA during lockdown (β = −0.142); more phone use during lockdown was a predictor for higher levels of household-related PA (β = 0.106), active transport (β = 0.096), and individual SC (β = 0.072) after lockdown. Phone use was negatively associated with PA through PC/TV use in the more phone use subgroup. Relationships among screen use, PA, and SC dynamically changed during COVID-19, and phone use that was identified as a bridge and a predictor may be the potential action point for health intervention in youths during lockdown.

Making space and building social capital: Unpacking the relationships between community center use and social capital in urban regenerated neighborhoods in Seoul, Korea

Scholars and planners have emphasized the importance of community spaces to enhance social capital in neighborhoods. This study extends the previous literature examining the influences of community centers on social capital in neighborhoods. Although prior research have estimated the association between community spaces uses and individual level of social capital, there is limited understanding of the causal direction of the effects of community spaces. This study fills this gap by employing the behavioral dissonance framework to clarify the effects of self-selection bias and/or actual effects of community center uses on social capital. Based on a household drop-off survey of 600 respondents in Seoul, Korea, we use a multiple regression model to identify the relationships between community center uses and overall social capital. Additionally, we take account of how the influences of community center use vary across different domains of social capital by employing ordinal logistic regression models. Our results may help planners and policymakers better understand how to enhance social capital with community spaces and develop tailored strategies to achieve social sustainability in regenerated neighborhoods according to different domains of social capital.

CaregiverSocial Capital and Supportive Relationships are Associated with Better Child Social-Emotional Development.

This study examined how different domains of social capital and of social support among caregivers are associated with social-emotional development in children ages 4-6 and how caregiver depressive symptoms modify these associations. Using a stratified random sample of preschools, data included a cross-sectional study of 1147 child-caregiver pairs (543 girls) in a low-income municipality in Brazil. Crude and adjusted linear regression models revealed that all domains of social support and two domains of social capital were associated with less social-emotional development delay in children. Given a significant proportion of children in low- and middle-income countries do not meet developmental milestones, strengthening caregiver social capital and support in these settings may have the potential to improve child social-emotional development.

The association of social capital with depression and quality of life in school-aged children

Social capital is an important factor that affects mental health. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between social capital and depression and between social capital and quality of life (QoL) in children in elementary and junior high school and to examine how this relationship differs in relevant patterns at both the individual- and school-level. The study was conducted in all elementary and junior high schools in a single municipality; the subjects consisted of 3,722 elementary school and 3,987 junior high school students (aged from 9 to 15). A multilevel linear mixed effect model analysis revealed that all three subscales of social capital were associated with depression and QoL at the individual-level: The school social capital at the individual-level showed the strongest association with depression and QoL. We also found that some of social capital at the school-level was associated with depression and QoL. An interactive effect was observed between educational stage (elementary and junior high) and some of social capital subscales. Specifically, the inverse association between school social capital and depression was stronger among the junior high students, while the positive association between school and neighborhood social capital and QoL was stronger among the elementary students. These interactions suggest that social capital impacts depression and QoL differently in elementary and junior high students. These findings suggest that the degree of association of social capital domains differs in mental health among the educational stage.

Micro-theory on knowledge transfer to foster disaster resilience: A grounded theory approach

Although recent literature suggested that knowledge generation and dissemination in social networks influence resilience, research in knowledge transfer and social capital domains have shown a low tendency to integrate into theoretical frameworks. This paper discusses the process of building a micro-theory, which explains the dynamics of knowledge transfer in social networks of disaster responders in Sri Lanka. The proposed theory suggests the association among knowledge transfer, dimensions of social capital, and resilience in a disaster context. This study employs an interpretive case study research design, with an exploratory approach and uses grounded theory driven constant comparison method for data analysis. The transcriptions from 21 semi-structured interviews and participant observations of two disaster drill exercises used as the primary data source for the data analysis. The analysis of this study generates a coding pattern with six categories of concepts and proposes the theory of KTinSSC with the theoretical consensus from the two case studies. The proposed theory explains the knowledge transfer among responders who are focused mostly on the immediate survival and discusses the effect of knowledge transfer interactions on their normative beliefs. The study also suggests ways to attain higher levels of resilience among such survival-focused social groups.

Social capital in retirement villages: a literature review

AbstractRetirement villages are a model of extra-care housing, offering purpose-designed housing that incorporates both care services and a range of non-care-related facilities and activities. These generate opportunities for formal and informal social activity, and promote community engagement, solidarity between residents, and active and independent ageing. Providers suggest that retirement villages are able to foster an environment rich in social capital. This study's purpose is to review and summarise key findings on the topic of social capital in retirement villages in the gerontological literature. Social capital is defined as both an individual attribute of single actors and a feature of communities as a whole. A clear conceptualisation of social capital is used to organise the reviewed studies along different dimensions: on an individual level, social networks, trustworthiness and obligations are differentiated, while the collective level distinguishes between system control, system trust and system morality. Thirty-four studies are reviewed. While retirement villages are generally described as friendly places with widespread helping behaviour where new friends are made, research has also highlighted the difficulty of socially integrating the frail and very old. While, in particular, social networks and system morality have received much attention, there is a clear need for future research into the other domains of social capital.

Stakeholders’ Perspectives of Social Capital in Informing the Development of Neighborhood-Based Disaster Resilience Measurements

The cultivation of neighborhood-based social capital has gained significant attention in the disaster management sector in recent years as a means to increase community disaster resilience. However, within the sector, the concept of social capital remains unclear and its measurement is limited at the neighborhood level due to a focus on predominately top-down and quantitative approaches. By using a qualitative, inductive-driven approach, this paper proposes an integrated social capital measurement framework that combines qualitative and quantitative measures for evaluating levels of social capital in neighborhoods. Nine focus groups consisting of 58 participants across a range of socioeconomically and ethnically diverse urban neighborhoods in New Zealand and the United States were conducted. Three key themes were identified that relate to the formation, activation, and benefits of social capital resources: community demography, cultural influences on social support, and neighborhood governance. By synthesizing the study’s results and existing literature, this paper proposes a measurement framework that incorporates both quantitative indicators and contextual questions across six structural and four cognitive social capital domains. The framework can serve as a starting point for neighborhood stakeholders, emergency management practitioners, policymakers, and researchers to assess the resilience of neighborhoods and identify areas for improvement.

Purchase decision-making process using social capital : moderating effect of trustworthiness

Based on social capital theory, this study aims to examine the effect of social capital domains on an individual's learning and cognitive attitude which regulates decision-making to purchase. Individuals who socially interact with each other and share vision using social media are more likely to share their purchase recommendation, which cognitively motivates to make a purchase decision where trustworthiness among networks strengthen the relationship of social interaction, social vision and cognitive behaviour of an individual. With the help of latest literature, theoretical model and number of the hypothesis are built. Data was collected from 360 universities students who use social media to collect for information and knowledge and ask for a recommendation from their social capital, on which, they trust while purchasing products and services. AMOS-21 was used to perform statistical analysis, and where for moderation analysis, hierarchical regression method is used.

Assessing the influence of social capital on water point sustainability in rural Ethiopia

Abstract Despite considerable investment, sustainability of rural water resources remains a critical challenge in Ethiopia. Evidence suggests social capital – the networks, norms, and trust that facilitate cooperative behaviors – influences a community's ability to manage communal water resources. In turn, strong community governance of water resources may lead to sustainable resource management. Existing evidence provides a framework for exploring the relationship between social capital and governance of common-pool resources. However, there is a dearth of quantifiable evidence demonstrating the relationship between social capital, collaborative governance, and, in turn, sustainability of communal water resources. In 32 communities in rural Ethiopia, we employed a validated survey tool, developed by the World Bank, to quantify social capital and explore these relationships. We found associations between governance and several social capital domains: groups and networks, trust and solidarity, and information and communication. All governance indicators were associated with functionality. Identifying domains of social capital that influence governance can inform institutional efforts to target community-based water resource programming, foster social capital to improve water point sustainability, and diagnose issues related to resource management. Additional research examining the influence and directionality of social capital and other social constructs on water resource governance and functionality is warranted.

Influence of different domains of social capital on psychological distress among Croatian high school students.

BackgroundSocial capital has been shown to have positive effects on multiple health outcomes among young people (i.e., obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and infectious diseases). Studies are suggesting that social capital is an important asset for the health and wellbeing of children and adolescents, including for their mental health. We sought to examine the influences of different domains of social capital – in the family, in the neighbourhood, and at school – on levels of psychological distress among high school students in Croatia.MethodsCross-sectional survey of 3427 high school students (1688 males and 1739 females), aged 17–18 years, was carried out in the 2013/14 school year (response rate: 93.8%). Logistic regression was used to examine the influence of family, neighbourhood and school social capital on the risk of high psychological distress, measured by the Kessler-6 scale.ResultsAdjusting for age, school, gender, body mass index, self-perceived socioeconomic status, self-rated health and physical activity, high family support in school (OR 0.37; 95% CI: 0.27-0.51), high neighbourhood trust (OR 0.62; 95% CI: 0.53-0.73), high teacher-student interpersonal trust (OR 0.74; 95% CI: 0.62-0.89) and high student interpersonal trust (OR 0.79; 95% CI: 0.65-0.97) was each associated with lower odds of psychological distress. When all of the social capital variables were entered simultaneously, higher social capital in each domain was inversely associated with psychological distress.ConclusionsFamily support in school, neighbourhood trust, teacher-student interpersonal trust and student interpersonal trust were significantly inversely associated with psychological distress among adolescents. Intervention and policies that leverage community social capital might serve as means of mental health promotion among youth.

Social Capital and Vulnerable Urban Youth in Five Global Cities

PurposeSocial capital is essential for the successful development of young people. The current study examines direct measures of social capital in young people in five urban global contexts. MethodsThe Well-Being of Adolescents in Vulnerable Environments is a global study of young people aged 15–19 years living in disadvantaged, urban settings. Respondent-driven sampling was used to recruit approximately 500 participants from each site. The sample included 2,339 young people (mean age 16.7 years; 47.5% female). We examined the associations between social capital in four domains—family, school, peers, and neighborhood and demographic characteristics—using gender-stratified ordinary least-squares regression. We also examined associations between self-reported health and the four social capital domains, which was minimal. ResultsSchool enrollment was positively associated with social capital for young women in Baltimore, Delhi, and Shanghai; the association was less consistent for young men. The same pattern is true for perceived wealth. Unstable housing was associated with low familial social capital in all groups except young women in Shanghai and young men in Ibadan and Johannesburg. Being raised outside a two-parent family has a widespread, negative association with social capital. Self-reported health had a mainly positive association with social capital with the most consistent association being neighborhood social capital. ConclusionsDifferent types of social capital interact with social contexts and gender differently. Strategies that aim to build social capital as part of risk reduction and positive youth development programming need to recognize that social capital enhancement may work differently for different groups and in different settings.

Social Capital and Educational Attainment Among Rural Community in Malaysia

The determinants of educational attainment among children have become one of the main research agenda among scholars, educationists and economists alike. In most studies, the focus is on the relationship between educational attainment and factors such as the quality of teachers, schools, educational technologies, curriculum design, the fi nancial and human capital aspect of the families and the ability of children themselves. Recently, the focus has been expanded to explore the relationship between social capital and educational attainment. As an addition to the existing literature, this paper attempts to investigate the impact of social capital on educational attainment using a regression analysis based on a sample of 2500 households, gathered from a rural community in Terengganu, Malaysia. Six domains of social capital are used to arrive at the index of social capital. The argument advanced in this paper is that social capital, which could be viewed as the outcome of networking, cooperation and trust at the household level, is expected to have a positive impact on a child’s educational attainment. Towards this end, we regress children’s education attainment on social capital along with other relevant independent variables, i.e. family, children, school and neighbourhood characteristics. Interestingly, the result of our study reveals that the level of social capital that a family has, is found to be signifi cant and has the expected positive sign. This finding implies that social capital at the household level appear to be a critical factor in determining a child’s educational attainment. Thus, our finding lends support to the idea that social capital is a good predictor of children’s is educational attainment. Keywords: Social capital, educational attainment, rural community.

Dynamics of Social Capital among Resource Poor Rural Women

Social capital is an important dimension for rural development which helps in transforming people into active citizens by adopting a bottom-up approach, influencing the ability of individuals and groups to cooperate in taking advantages of emerging opportunities. Social capital, if built among the resource poor women, can jointly take up economic activities to improve their livelihood. This study was carried out to explore the dynamics of social capital among the resource poor schedule caste and schedule tribe rural women through mushroom cultivation as an agro-based enterprise using locally available agricultural wastes. An Ex-post Facto Cause to Effect design was used to analyse the impact of social capital. The number of people with low social capital decreased from 31 to 20% and those in medium and high social capital categories increased from 45 to 47.5% and 24 to 32.5%, respectively. These variables help the self help group members to expose to new situations and thereby facilitate them to attempt collective action. Correlation analysis revealed that all the domains of social capital were significant. The variables such as education, cosmopoliteness and mass media usage were significantly (p Key words: Extension interventions; Social capital; Sustainable rural livelihood. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4038/tar.v22i3.3696 Tropical Agricultural Research 22(3) (2011) 230-238

“Sense of community belonging” in health surveys: What social capital is it measuring?

Canadian national health surveys regularly ask respondents to rate their sense of belonging to their local community. Health studies commonly use this question as a social capital indicator, but what social capital domains community belonging is measuring remains unclear. Analyzing Canadian General Social Survey data, we evaluate the validity of this measure with respect to network-based social capital and health. Results indicate that sense of community belonging is associated positively with several network-based social capital measures. Neighborhood network-based social capital most substantially reduced associations between sense of community belonging and health measures, but results differed by urban and rural settings. These findings indicate the need for public health surveys to include specific measures of respondents' networks.

Parenting and Families in Australia

Parenting and Families in Australia

Engaging Youth Through Volunteer Service Travel: In Service of the Common Good

Volunteer Tourism is becoming a popular topic in the travel literature. These experiences combine the adventure of travel with opportunities to serve the communities visited. This burgeoning field of tourism may provide an attractive outlet for generating positive developmental assets and for encouraging future civic engagement. This paper highlights a study which explored the relationship of wisdom and social capital and also discussed the influence of a voluntourism experience on wisdom and social capital domains. The sample consisted of 68 high school youth from the various high schools in Illinois. Results indicate that wisdom and social capital are positively and significantly related. In addition, wisdom and social capital indicators increased significantly over the course of the experience.

Social capital does matter for adolescent health: evidence from the English HBSC study

Social capital has grown out of the recognition that health-related behaviours are shaped and constrained by a range of social and community contexts and that the ways in which an individual relates to social networks and communities has important effects on their health and well-being. Given the strong and complex inequalities that exist in adolescent health at both the national and international levels, social capital, acting a protective factor (or asset), may help reduce poor outcomes. The aim of this study was to measure and assess the relative importance of a range of social indicators representing the different domains of social capital on the health, wellbeing and health-related behaviours of young people. The study population was a random sample of 6425 school children aged 11-15 years old in 80 schools in England. Data were collected by a standardized questionnaire under supervised conditions in the classroom developed as part of the WHO Health Behaviour in School Aged Children (HBSC) study. This study has shown that social capital matters for young people's health, statistically significant relationships were found between the range of social capital indicators and the health and health-related outcomes selected for study. For example, young people with a low sense of family belonging and low involvement in the neighbourhood were almost twice as likely to report poor health (OR = 1.87 and 1.96, respectively). Low involvement in the neighbourhood was also highly associated with low consumption of fruit (OR = 2.48) and vegetables (OR = 2.62). Overall, however the strength of associations found varied across health behaviours and indicators of social capital and this requires further examination.