IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v142y2015icp169-182.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Which part of community social capital is related to life satisfaction and self-rated health? A multilevel analysis based on a nationwide mail survey in Japan

Author

Listed:
  • Inaba, Yoji
  • Wada, Yuri
  • Ichida, Yukinobu
  • Nishikawa, Masashi

Abstract

This paper aims to clarify the association between various social capital components at the municipal level (community social capital) and two quality-of-life factors at the individual level [individual self-rated life satisfaction and self-rated health (SRH)] based on data from a nationwide social capital survey that the authors carried out in 2013 in Japan (N = 3406 in 99 municipalities). The survey covers residents in Japan between the ages of 20 and 79 years. We focus on both contextual social capital and household income inequality in terms of the Gini coefficient at the municipality level since, to the best of our knowledge, no paper has explicitly dealt with municipalities in Japan as the units of contextual social capital and the Gini. Our analyses show that the subjective life satisfaction of individuals, after controlling for socioeconomic status and health at the individual level, is associate with both an income gap and social capital at the municipal level. Every component of community social capital in this study except for generalized reciprocity, both cognitive (generalized trust, particularized trust, and particularized reciprocity), and structural (three types of group participation and daily contacts with neighbors, friends/acquaintances, and colleagues), and the Gini coefficient on earned income were associated with self-rated life satisfaction at the individual level with statistical significance. However, SRH is associated only with cognitive social capital at the community level. SRH has no significant association with structural components of community social capital or with a community income gap in terms of the Gini coefficient on personal income. Judging from the results of estimates in the study, most of the components of community social capital at the municipal level seem to play an important role in enhancing self-rated life satisfaction. Life satisfaction may be associated with the broad atmosphere of the municipal level where one resides, while SRH is associated with cognitive social capital rather than structural social capital. However, the difference in the impact of contextual social capital between the two QOL indices may indicate the importance of considering a proper contextual level that is suitable for the outcome.

Suggested Citation

  • Inaba, Yoji & Wada, Yuri & Ichida, Yukinobu & Nishikawa, Masashi, 2015. "Which part of community social capital is related to life satisfaction and self-rated health? A multilevel analysis based on a nationwide mail survey in Japan," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 169-182.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:142:y:2015:i:c:p:169-182
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.08.007
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953615300599
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.08.007?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Oshio, Takashi & Kobayashi, Miki, 2010. "Income inequality, perceived happiness, and self-rated health: Evidence from nationwide surveys in Japan," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(9), pages 1358-1366, May.
    2. Aminzadeh, Kaveh & Denny, Simon & Utter, Jennifer & Milfont, Taciano L. & Ameratunga, Shanthi & Teevale, Tasileta & Clark, Terryann, 2013. "Neighbourhood social capital and adolescent self-reported wellbeing in New Zealand: A multilevel analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 13-21.
    3. Wilkinson, Richard G & Pickett, Kate E., 2006. "Income inequality and population health: A review and explanation of the evidence," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(7), pages 1768-1784, April.
    4. Alesina, Alberto & Di Tella, Rafael & MacCulloch, Robert, 2004. "Inequality and happiness: are Europeans and Americans different?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(9-10), pages 2009-2042, August.
    5. Tsuyoshi Hamano & Yoshikazu Fujisawa & Yu Ishida & S V Subramanian & Ichiro Kawachi & Kuninori Shiwaku, 2010. "Social Capital and Mental Health in Japan: A Multilevel Analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 5(10), pages 1-6, October.
    6. Ferlander, Sara & Mäkinen, Ilkka Henrik, 2009. "Social capital, gender and self-rated health. Evidence from the Moscow Health Survey 2004," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(9), pages 1323-1332, November.
    7. Murayama, Hiroshi & Wakui, Tomoko & Arami, Reiko & Sugawara, Ikuko & Yoshie, Satoru, 2012. "Contextual effect of different components of social capital on health in a suburban city of the greater Tokyo area: A multilevel analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(12), pages 2472-2480.
    8. Ichida, Yukinobu & Kondo, Katsunori & Hirai, Hiroshi & Hanibuchi, Tomoya & Yoshikawa, Goshu & Murata, Chiyoe, 2009. "Social capital, income inequality and self-rated health in Chita peninsula, Japan: a multilevel analysis of older people in 25 communities," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(4), pages 489-499, August.
    9. Sabatini, Fabio, 2009. "Social capital as social networks: A new framework for measurement and an empirical analysis of its determinants and consequences," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 429-442, June.
    10. Kawachi, I. & Kennedy, B.P. & Lochner, K. & Prothrow-Stith, D., 1997. "Social capital, income inequality, and mortality," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 87(9), pages 1491-1498.
    11. Veenstra, Gerry, 2002. "Social capital and health (plus wealth, income inequality and regional health governance)," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 54(6), pages 849-868, March.
    12. Aida, Jun & Hanibuchi, Tomoya & Nakade, Miyo & Hirai, Hiroshi & Osaka, Ken & Kondo, Katsunori, 2009. "The different effects of vertical social capital and horizontal social capital on dental status: A multilevel analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(4), pages 512-518, August.
    13. Suzuki, Etsuji & Takao, Soshi & Subramanian, S.V. & Komatsu, Hirokazu & Doi, Hiroyuki & Kawachi, Ichiro, 2010. "Does low workplace social capital have detrimental effect on workers' health?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(9), pages 1367-1372, May.
    14. Kondo, Naoki & Kawachi, Ichiro & Subramanian, S.V. & Takeda, Yasuhisa & Yamagata, Zentaro, 2008. "Do social comparisons explain the association between income inequality and health?: Relative deprivation and perceived health among male and female Japanese individuals," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(6), pages 982-987, September.
    15. Oshio, Takashi & Kobayashi, Miki, 2009. "Income inequality, area-level poverty, perceived aversion to inequality, and self-rated health in Japan," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(3), pages 317-326, August.
    16. Verhaeghe, Pieter-Paul & Tampubolon, Gindo, 2012. "Individual social capital, neighbourhood deprivation, and self-rated health in England," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(2), pages 349-357.
    17. Fujisawa, Yoshikazu & Hamano, Tsuyoshi & Takegawa, Shogo, 2009. "Social capital and perceived health in Japan: An ecological and multilevel analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(4), pages 500-505, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Moeko Noguchi-Shinohara & Kohei Hirako & Hiromasa Tsujiguchi & Tomoya Itatani & Kiyoko Yanagihara & Hikaru Samuta & Hiroyuki Nakamura, 2020. "Residents living in communities with higher civic participation report higher self-rated health," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(10), pages 1-9, October.
    2. Okuyama, Naoko & Inaba, Yoji, 2017. "Influence of natural disasters on social engagement and post-disaster well-being: The case of the Great East Japan Earthquake," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 1-13.
    3. Adam Jon Lebowitz & Shinji Sato & Miyuki Aiba, 2018. "Correlating Post-disaster Support Network Density with Reciprocal Support Relation Satisfaction: An Elderly Cohort Within One Year of the 2011 Japan Disasters," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 37(6), pages 923-939, December.
    4. Uriel Leviatan, 2017. "Physical Social Capital and Psychosocial Social Capital as Mediators Between Socio-economic Inequality and Expressions of Well-being and Health in Israeli Kibbutz Populations," Psychology and Developing Societies, , vol. 29(2), pages 160-199, September.
    5. Elena Druică & Zizi Goschin & Rodica Ianole-Călin, 2019. "Energy Poverty and Life Satisfaction: Structural Mechanisms and Their Implications," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-20, October.
    6. Tong Zou & Yikun Su & Yaowu Wang, 2018. "Examining Relationships between Social Capital, Emotion Experience and Life Satisfaction for Sustainable Community," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-16, July.
    7. Zihan Yang & Xu Cai & Yujia Jiang & Guobiao Li & Guojing Zhao & Peng Wang & Zhaoxin Huang, 2022. "What Are the Recipes of an Entrepreneur’s Subjective Well-Being? A Fuzzy-Set Approach for China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(1), pages 1-19, December.
    8. Young-joo Ahn, 2020. "Do Informal Social Ties and Local Festival Participation Relate to Subjective Well-Being?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(1), pages 1-14, December.
    9. Rodgers, Justin & Valuev, Anna V. & Hswen, Yulin & Subramanian, S.V., 2019. "Social capital and physical health: An updated review of the literature for 2007–2018," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 236(C), pages 1-1.
    10. YODO Masato & YANO Makoto, 2017. "Household Income and the OECD's Four Types of Social Capital," Discussion papers 17119, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    11. Wenjun Li & Haiyan Sun & Wen Xu & Wenyuan Ma & Xin Yuan & Yaling Niu & Changgui Kou, 2021. "Individual Social Capital and Life Satisfaction among Mainland Chinese Adults: Based on the 2016 China Family Panel Studies," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(2), pages 1-14, January.
    12. Jaehun Joo & Jeong-Ja Choi & Namhyun Kim, 2019. "Examining Roles of Tour Dure Producers for Social Capital and Innovativeness in Community-Based Tourism," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-17, September.
    13. Kazuya Nogi & Haruhiko Imamura & Keiko Asakura & Yuji Nishiwaki, 2021. "Association of Structural Social Capital and Self-Reported Well-Being among Japanese Community-Dwelling Adults: A Longitudinal Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(16), pages 1-14, August.
    14. Crowley, Frank & Walsh, Edel, 2018. "How important are Personal Ties, Trust and Tolerance for Life Satisfaction in Europe?," SRERC Working Paper Series SRERCWP2018-1, University College Cork (UCC), Spatial and Regional Economic Research Centre (SRERC).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Eiji Yamamura, 2011. "Differences in the effect of social capital on health status between workers and non-workers," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 58(4), pages 385-400, December.
    2. Hanibuchi, Tomoya & Murata, Yohei & Ichida, Yukinobu & Hirai, Hiroshi & Kawachi, Ichiro & Kondo, Katsunori, 2012. "Place-specific constructs of social capital and their possible associations to health: A Japanese case study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(1), pages 225-232.
    3. Hiyoshi, Ayako & Fukuda, Yoshiharu & Shipley, Martin J. & Brunner, Eric J., 2014. "Health inequalities in Japan: The role of material, psychosocial, social relational and behavioural factors," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 201-209.
    4. Rodgers, Justin & Valuev, Anna V. & Hswen, Yulin & Subramanian, S.V., 2019. "Social capital and physical health: An updated review of the literature for 2007–2018," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 236(C), pages 1-1.
    5. Seung-Sup Kim & Yeonseung Chung & Melissa J Perry & Ichiro Kawachi & S V Subramanian, 2012. "Association between Interpersonal Trust, Reciprocity, and Depression in South Korea: A Prospective Analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(1), pages 1-8, January.
    6. Takashi Oshio & Miki Kobayashi, 2011. "Area-Level Income Inequality and Individual Happiness: Evidence from Japan," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 12(4), pages 633-649, August.
    7. Sehee Han & Hee-Sun Lee, 2013. "Individual, household and administrative area levels of social capital and their associations with mental health: A multi-level analysis of cross-sectional evidence," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 59(7), pages 716-723, November.
    8. Han, Sehee, 2013. "Compositional and contextual associations of social capital and self-rated health in Seoul, South Korea: A multilevel analysis of longitudinal evidence," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 113-120.
    9. Chee Hon Chan & Ho Kit Wong & Paul Siu Fai Yip, 2017. "Associations of relative income deprivation with perceived happiness and self-rated health among the Hong Kong Chinese population," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 62(6), pages 697-707, July.
    10. Murayama, Hiroshi & Wakui, Tomoko & Arami, Reiko & Sugawara, Ikuko & Yoshie, Satoru, 2012. "Contextual effect of different components of social capital on health in a suburban city of the greater Tokyo area: A multilevel analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(12), pages 2472-2480.
    11. Luo, Weixiang & Xie, Yu, 2020. "Economic growth, income inequality and life expectancy in China," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 256(C).
    12. Mishra, Sandeep & Carleton, R. Nicholas, 2015. "Subjective relative deprivation is associated with poorer physical and mental health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 144-149.
    13. Damiano Fiorillo, 2016. "Workers’ health and social relations in Italy," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 43(5), pages 835-862, October.
    14. Saito, Masashige & Kondo, Naoki & Kondo, Katsunori & Ojima, Toshiyuki & Hirai, Hiroshi, 2012. "Gender differences on the impacts of social exclusion on mortality among older Japanese: AGES cohort study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(5), pages 940-945.
    15. Adam Okulicz-Kozaryn & Joan Maya Mazelis, 2017. "More Unequal in Income, More Unequal in Wellbeing," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 132(3), pages 953-975, July.
    16. Owen O'Donnell & Eddy Van Doorslaer & Tom Van Ourti, 2013. "Health and Inequality," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 13-170/V, Tinbergen Institute.
    17. Hiroshi Murayama & Reiko Arami & Tomoko Wakui & Ikuko Sugawara & Satoru Yoshie, 2014. "Cross-level interaction between individual and neighbourhood socioeconomic status in relation to social trust in a Japanese community," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 51(13), pages 2770-2786, October.
    18. Zheng, Hui & George, Linda K., 2012. "Rising U.S. income inequality and the changing gradient of socioeconomic status on physical functioning and activity limitations, 1984–2007," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(12), pages 2170-2182.
    19. Akcomak, Semih, 2009. "Bridges in social capital: A review of the definitions and the social capital of social capital researchers," MERIT Working Papers 2009-002, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    20. Fiorillo, Damiano & Sabatini, Fabio, 2011. "Quality and quantity: The role of social interactions in self-reported individual health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(11), pages 1644-1652.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:142:y:2015:i:c:p:169-182. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.