Does social capital buffer or exacerbate mental health inequality? Evidence from the China Family Panel Study (CFPS)

Zhongliang Zhou · Guanping Liu · Chi Shen · Yangling Ren · Dantong Zhao · Yaxin Zhao +2 more

49 citations0/0 files storedInternational Journal for Equity in Health

No readable copy stored yet — this record is metadata only.

No open-access location is known for this record yet.

Literature note Cite in a project Citation map

Health disparities and outcomes Mental Health Treatment and Access Social Capital and Networks

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Health inequality, including physical and mental health inequality, is an important issue. What role social capital plays in mental health inequality is still ambiguous, especially in developing countries. The aim of this study is to explore the relationship between social capital and mental health inequality in China. METHOD: Both family-level and community-/village-level social capitals are included in our analysis. Data is mainly extracted from the China Family Panel Studies in 2018, and lagged term of social capital in CFPS 2016 was used to link with other variables in 2018. Depressive symptoms and subjective well-being are set as indicators of mental health. A series of OLS regression models were conducted to estimate the effects of social capital on mental health and mental health inequality. RESULTS: Higher levels of social capital and income are related to a lower level of depressive symptoms and a higher level of subjective well-being. The positive coefficient of interaction term of family-level social capital and income level in the urban area indicates that the inhibiting effect of social capital on depressive symptoms is pro-poor. The negative coefficient of interaction term of village-level social capital and income level in the rural area suggests that the promoting effect of social capital on subjective well-being is pro-poor, too. CONCLUSION: The results show that severe mental health inequality exists in China; family-level social capital can buffer depressive symptom inequality, and village-level social capital can buffer SWB inequality. Although the amount of social capital of the poor is less than the rich, the poor can better use social capital to improve their mental health. Our study advocates enhancing social participation and communication for the poor to reduce mental health inequality.

Paper brief

Loading…

Cite this work

Citation unavailable for this work.

BibTeX RIS CSL-JSON

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Citations in this library

Citation map →

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 49 citations exist upstream.

References

2017The Use of Cronbach’s Alpha When Developing and Reporting Research Instruments in Science Education 2004The social context of well–being 2014Global Patterns in Students’ Views of Science and Interest in Science 2006Does social capital enhance health and well-being? Evidence from rural China 2011Counting Chickens when they Hatch: Timing and the Effects of Aid on Growth 2014Depressive symptoms and SES among the mid-aged and elderly in China: Evidence from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study national baseline 2013A systematic review of the relationships between social capital and socioeconomic inequalities in health: a contribution to understanding the psychosocial pathway of health inequalities 2013Social Capital and Individual Happiness in Europe

Cited by

2023Internet use and rural-urban mental health inequalities: Evidence from China 2023The relationship between social capital and health from a configuration perspective: an evidence from China

Explore the map →

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.

Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.