Social capital as a health asset for young people's health and wellbeing

Abstract

Background: The concept of social capital has been identified as a ‘resource for societies, contributing to a range of beneficial economic, social and health outcomes and as such has the potential to help further articulate the relationship between health and its broader determinants. While the majority of published studies relate to adult health, the emerging literature on social capital and young people appears not to be learning lessons from some of the difficulties related to earlier research that have hampered its practical application. The overall aim of this thesis was to use an asset based approach to explore the relationship between social capital and young people’s health and wellbeing and to contribute to the development of an appropriate framework for future positive youth development. In doing, it will address some of the definitional, measurement and theoretical difficulties associated with the adult literature.

Materials and methods: It uses data derived from three survey rounds (2002, 2006, and 2010) of the WHO Health Behaviour in School Aged Children (HBSC) international study to address the study objectives. Paper I used the full sample of 11-15 year olds in England only (2002). Paper II used data from 15 year olds across 6 countries sourced through the 2006 international dataset. Paper III used 2002 English and Spanish data for 15 year olds only and Paper IV included 13 and 15 year olds from the 2010 English and Spanish surveys. A range of multivariate analysis techniques were used to assess the independent effects of social capital after controlling for other socio-demographic factors.

Contributions from each paper: This thesis provides some evidence of the links between social capital and young people’s health and wellbeing independent of other demographic and socio-economic variables and other known influences. The strength of association varies across the range of outcomes studied and indicators of social capital. There is also evidence that the three social capital domains chosen for study, sense of belonging, autonomy and control, and social networking are important in their own right and can act separately as health promoting factors and protect against some risk taking behaviours.

The family remains an important setting for securing a young persons’ potential for health even at age 15; providing young people with opportunities to share decision making processes can have beneficial effects. Although the optimal characteristics of family dynamics needs to take account of different socio-political and cultural contexts. There is consistent evidence that social networking activities via a range of clubs and organisations are beneficial for health, wellbeing and related outcomes. However the key features of what makes these clubs health enhancing needs to be further articulated, as there are instances when participation can be health damaging. Some aspects of social capital can inhibit smoking behaviour, even amongst those young people who smoke.

Conclusions: Social capital can be a key health asset for young people. However, it is only one of a wide range of factors that determine health experience during this key development stage. In particular these include, the skills and competencies required to utilize social networks for individual and collective good. The Asset Model may be helpful in exploring this wider lexicon of health assets and their connections with social capital.