IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v68y2009i3p436-443.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Social capital, political trust and self-reported psychological health: A population-based study

Author

Listed:
  • Lindstrom, Martin
  • Mohseni, Mohabbat

Abstract

This study investigates the association between political trust (an aspect of institutional trust) in the Riksdag (the national parliament in Sweden) and self-reported psychological health, taking generalized (horizontal) trust in other people into account. The 2004 public health survey in Skåne in Southern Sweden is a cross-sectional postal questionnaire study that was answered by 27,757 respondents aged 18-80 yielding a 59% response rate. A logistic regression model was used to investigate the associations between political trust and self-reported psychological health adjusting for possible confounders (age, country of origin, education, economic stress and generalized trust in other people i.e. horizontal trust). We found that 13.0% of the men and 18.9% of the women reported poor psychological health. A total of 17.3% and 11.6% of the male and female respondents, respectively, reported that they had no trust at all in the national parliament, and another 38.2% and 36.2%, respectively, reported that their political trust was not particularly high. Respondents in younger age groups, born abroad, with high education, high levels of economic stress, low horizontal trust and low political trust had significantly higher levels of self-reported poor psychological health. There was a significant association between low political trust and low horizontal trust. After adjustments for age, country of origin, education and economic stress, the inclusion of horizontal trust reduced the odds ratios of self-reported poor psychological health in the "no political trust at all" category compared to the "very high political trust" category from 1.6 to 1.4 among men and from 1.7 to 1.4 among women. It is concluded that low political trust in the Riksdag seems to be significantly and positively associated with poor mental health.

Suggested Citation

  • Lindstrom, Martin & Mohseni, Mohabbat, 2009. "Social capital, political trust and self-reported psychological health: A population-based study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(3), pages 436-443, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:68:y:2009:i:3:p:436-443
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(08)00580-7
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    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. Kawachi, I. & Kennedy, B.P. & Glass, R., 1999. "Social capital and self-rated health: A contextual analysis," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 89(8), pages 1187-1193.
    2. Almedom, Astier M., 2005. "Social capital and mental health: An interdisciplinary review of primary evidence," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(5), pages 943-964, September.
    3. Lofors, Jonas & Sundquist, Kristina, 2007. "Low-linking social capital as a predictor of mental disorders: A cohort study of 4.5 million Swedes," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 21-34, January.
    4. Anderson, Christopher J. & Guillory, Christine A., 1997. "Political Institutions and Satisfaction with Democracy: A Cross-National Analysis of Consensus and Majoritarian Systems," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 91(1), pages 66-81, March.
    5. repec:elg:eechap:2434_4 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Ali, Sadiq M. & Merlo, Juan & Rosvall, Maria & Lithman, Thor & Lindström, Martin, 2006. "Social capital, the miniaturisation of community, traditionalism and first time acute myocardial infarction: A prospective cohort study in southern Sweden," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(8), pages 2204-2217, October.
    7. Easton, David, 1975. "A Re-assessment of the Concept of Political Support," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 5(4), pages 435-457, October.
    8. Mohseni, Mohabbat & Lindstrom, Martin, 2007. "Social capital, trust in the health-care system and self-rated health: The role of access to health care in a population-based study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(7), pages 1373-1383, April.
    9. Araya, Ricardo & Dunstan, Frank & Playle, Rebecca & Thomas, Hollie & Palmer, Stephen & Lewis, Glyn, 2006. "Perceptions of social capital and the built environment and mental health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(12), pages 3072-3083, June.
    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. Berry, Helen Louise & Welsh, Jennifer A., 2010. "Social capital and health in Australia: An overview from the household, income and labour dynamics in Australia survey," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(4), pages 588-596, February.
    2. Niu, Geng & Zhao, Guochang, 2018. "Religion and trust in strangers among China's rural-urban migrants," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 265-272.
    3. Liu, Gordon G. & Xue, Xindong & Yu, Chenxi & Wang, Yafeng, 2016. "How does social capital matter to the health status of older adults? Evidence from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Survey," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 22(C), pages 177-189.
    4. Maiko Fukasawa & Norito Kawakami & Maki Umeda & Tsuyoshi Akiyama & Naoko Horikoshi & Seiji Yasumura & Hirooki Yabe & Yuriko Suzuki & Evelyn J Bromet, 2021. "Distrust in government and its relationship with mental health after the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 67(6), pages 680-686, September.
    5. Christian Kroll, 2011. "Different Things Make Different People Happy: Examining Social Capital and Subjective Well-Being by Gender and Parental Status," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 104(1), pages 157-177, October.
    6. Habibov, Nazim N. & Afandi, Elvin N., 2011. "Self-rated health and social capital in transitional countries: Multilevel analysis of comparative surveys in Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(7), pages 1193-1204, April.
    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. Jiaping Zhang & Xiaomei Gong & Zhongkun Zhu & Zhenyu Zhang, 2023. "Trust cost of environmental risk to government: the impact of Internet use," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(6), pages 5363-5392, June.
    9. Sunhee Kim & Jaesun Wang, 2019. "Does Quality of Government Matter in Public Health?: Comparing the Role of Quality and Quantity of Government at the National Level," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-24, June.
    10. Magdalena Celuch & Atte Oksanen & Pekka Räsänen & Matthew Costello & Catherine Blaya & Izabela Zych & Vicente J. Llorent & Ashley Reichelmann & James Hawdon, 2022. "Factors Associated with Online Hate Acceptance: A Cross-National Six-Country Study among Young Adults," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(1), pages 1-13, January.
    11. Fiorillo, Damiano & Lubrano Lavadera, Giuseppe & Nappo, Nunzia, 2016. "Social participation and self-rated psychological health," MPRA Paper 72879, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Ahnquist, Johanna & Wamala, Sarah P. & Lindstrom, Martin, 2012. "Social determinants of health – A question of social or economic capital? Interaction effects of socioeconomic factors on health outcomes," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(6), pages 930-939.
    13. Economou, Marina & Madianos, Michael & Peppou, Lily Evangelia & Souliotis, Kyriakos & Patelakis, Athanasios & Stefanis, Costas, 2014. "Cognitive social capital and mental illness during economic crisis: A nationwide population-based study in Greece," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 141-147.

    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. Lindström, Martin, 2008. "Social capital, political trust and purchase of illegal liquor: A population-based study in southern Sweden," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(2-3), pages 266-275, May.
    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. Barış Alpaslan & Julide Yildirim, 2020. "The Missing Link: Are Individuals with More Social Capital in Better Health? Evidence from India," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 150(3), pages 811-834, August.
    4. Melissa P L Chan & Robert S Weinhold & Reuben Thomas & Julia M Gohlke & Christopher J Portier, 2015. "Environmental Predictors of US County Mortality Patterns on a National Basis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(12), pages 1-25, December.
    5. Sirven, Nicolas, 2006. "Endogenous social capital and self-rated health: Cross-sectional data from rural areas of Madagascar," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(6), pages 1489-1502, September.
    6. Riumallo-Herl, Carlos Javier & Kawachi, Ichiro & Avendano, Mauricio, 2014. "Social capital, mental health and biomarkers in Chile: Assessing the effects of social capital in a middle-income country," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 47-58.
    7. Newton, Kenneth, 2005. "Support for democracy: Social capital, civil society and political performance," Discussion Papers, Research Group Civil Society, Citizenship and Political Mobilization in Europe SP IV 2005-402, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    8. Haobin Fan & Xuanyi Nie & Sarah Wilson, 2023. "Mental Health, Material Possessions, and Social Capital During COVID-19: A Study of the United States Urban Working-Age Population," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 18(1), pages 561-599, February.
    9. Quintal, Carlota & Ramos, Luís Moura & Torres, Pedro, 2023. "Disentangling the complexities of modelling when high social capital contributes to indicating good health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 320(C).
    10. 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.
    11. Xiaoming Lin & Ruodan Lu & Liang Guo & Bing Liu, 2019. "Social Capital and Mental Health in Rural and Urban China: A Composite Hypothesis Approach," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(4), pages 1-16, February.
    12. Saharnaz Nedjat & Reza Majdzadeh & Azita Kheiltash & Ensiyeh Jamshidi & Shahryar Yazdani, 2013. "Social Capital in Association with Socioeconomic Variables in Iran," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 113(3), pages 1153-1170, September.
    13. Wagner, Alexander F. & Schneider, Friedrich & Halla, Martin, 2009. "The quality of institutions and satisfaction with democracy in Western Europe -- A panel analysis," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 30-41, March.
    14. Fiorillo, Damiano & Sabatini, Fabio, 2011. "Quality and quantity: the role of social interactions in individual health," AICCON Working Papers 84-2011, Associazione Italiana per la Cultura della Cooperazione e del Non Profit.
    15. Wagner, Alexander F. & Schneider, Friedrich, 2006. "Satisfaction with Democracy and the Environment in Western Europe: A Panel Analysis," IZA Discussion Papers 1929, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Alexander F. Wagner & Mathias Dufour & Friedrich Schneider, 2003. "Satisfaction not Guaranteed - Institutions and Satisfaction with Democracy in Western Europe," CESifo Working Paper Series 910, CESifo.
    17. Adriana Loureiro & Paula Santana & Carla Nunes & Ricardo Almendra, 2019. "The Role of Individual and Neighborhood Characteristics on Mental Health after a Period of Economic Crisis in the Lisbon Region (Portugal): A Multilevel Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(15), pages 1-16, July.
    18. Tianan Yang & Yu-Ming Shen & Mingjing Zhu & Yuanling Liu & Jianwei Deng & Qian Chen & Lai-Chu See, 2015. "Effects of Co-Worker and Supervisor Support on Job Stress and Presenteeism in an Aging Workforce: A Structural Equation Modelling Approach," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-15, December.
    19. Rönnerstrand, Björn & Andersson Sundell, Karolina, 2015. "Trust, reciprocity and collective action to fight antibiotic resistance. An experimental approach," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 249-255.
    20. Mario Quaranta & Sergio Martini, 2017. "Easy Come, Easy Go? Economic Performance and Satisfaction with Democracy in Southern Europe in the Last Three Decades," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 131(2), pages 659-680, March.

    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:68:y:2009:i:3:p:436-443. 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.