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Social Capital and Mental Health in Rural and Urban China: A Composite Hypothesis Approach

Author

Listed:
  • Xiaoming Lin

    (Department of Statistics, Shandong University, Weihai 264209, China
    The first three authors equally contribute to this article.)

  • Ruodan Lu

    (Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1PZ, UK
    School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering, Loughborough University, Loughborough LE11 3TU, UK
    The first three authors equally contribute to this article.)

  • Liang Guo

    (Department of Statistics, Shandong University, Weihai 264209, China
    The first three authors equally contribute to this article.)

  • Bing Liu

    (School of Management, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, China)

Abstract

The objective of this study is to follow the composite theory approach to analyze the effect of social capital on self-rated mental health in rural and urban China. Our nationally representative sample includes 10,968 respondents from 130 county-level communities. Two-level random-coefficient linear regressions, which model individual and community variations in subjective mental health, were estimated by taking the hierarchical structure of the dataset into account. We found that a significant proportion of the total variations in self-rated mental health were explained at the community level. We also found an association between low contextual civic trust and poor self-rated mental health after adjusting for individual social capital and individual socioeconomic-demographic variables. The study also revealed that: (1) in rural areas a positive relationship between civic and political trust and mental health existed both at the individual and the community level, respectively; and (2) in urban areas, only political trust at the individual level contributed to better mental health. In addition, the individual and community level political participation exhibited a positive impact on mental health measures in both rural and urban China. The individual level civic participation was positively associated to the outcome variable. However, the community-level civic participation seemed to negatively impact mental health in urban area. Our findings emphasize the importance of both individual and community-level healthcare interventions in China. Finally, this study also found that human capital covariates remained important predictors of self-rated mental health status even after controlling social capital both at individual and community levels. This study suggested that the composite thesis could provide a more convincing narrative than other theories in explaining the effects of both human and social capital on health.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:4:p:665-:d:208735
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    References listed on IDEAS

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