BACKGROUND: Social capital is the term used to describe the results of social relationships formed by reciprocal exchanges among members of social networks such as religious, political, and other kinds of organizations. Research about this complex, widely debated concept has focused on cognitive and structural measures formed around several broad constructs: sense of community; trust and reciprocity; social support; social networks; participation; and collective efficacy. These constructs can be analyzed using individual, ecological, and multilevel analyses. However, the social capital literature provides little evidence about the relationship between social capital and health or the causes and consequences of this relationship. This lack can be attributed to definition and measurement issues within the literature, which also sustain the question of what the health benefits are from social capital.
METHODS: Using a meta-analysis to examine the breadth of the social capital literature, I seek to characterize the literature and provide an overall estimated effect size that statistically describes the relationship between social capital and health.
RESULTS: Meta-analysis of studies cited in the literature shows a modest positive relationship between social capital and self-reported health, social capital and all-cause mortality, and also significant, previously unexamined differences among the studies themselves: first, whether they reported an effect size or if an effect size was estimated; and second, there was a marginal difference in whether they focused on self-reported health or all-cause mortality.
CONCLUSIONS: There is a modest positive association between social capital and health which suggests unexplained factors that drive the relationship between social capital and health.
PUBLIC HEALTH SIGNIFICANCE: The results of this study indicate a need for social capital research to clearly define its constructs and measures and to provide more evidence about the relationship between social capital and health. Future research should identify micro- to macro-level factors that can influence this relationship. Such evidence can guide the design of future studies that seek to increase the stock of social capital for individuals and communities.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-08042008-173521 |
| Date | 29 June 2009 |
| Creators | Gilbert, Keon Lamount |
| Contributors | Michael Marshal, James Butler, Sandra C. Quinn, John Wallace, Ronald Stall, Robert Goodman |
| Publisher | University of Pittsburgh |
| Source Sets | University of Pittsburgh |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-08042008-173521/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Pittsburgh or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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