Abstract
This study links social capital with people’s health and well-being using data from the seventh wave of the World Value Survey, logistic regression, and path analysis. The study’s findings show that happiness and life satisfaction are two different measures of the same construct, or well-being. The determinants of each are also characterised differently: while life satisfaction is more of a stable and relative measure and is more strongly influenced by civic cooperation, social participation, and educational attainment, happiness is more of an unstable measure and is more strongly influenced by community belonging, trust and confidence aggregates, including employment and location of residence of an individual. Moreover, freedom of choice, financial satisfaction or social comparison, and state of health were the most important factors influencing happiness and life satisfaction. The findings also show that self-reported health (SRH) has a greater impact on happiness than a measure of life satisfaction. Path analysis shows out of the three other components of social capital—community belonging, civic engagement, and social participation—trust and confidence aggregates are the ones that have the biggest impact on increased social capital. For both well-being measures, SRH mediated the relationship. The life satisfaction measure had a higher level of mediation of SRH than happiness, but social capital had a smaller direct impact on life satisfaction than on happiness. SRH was found to be partially mediating this relationship for both happiness and life satisfaction measures, which means that people with higher social capital reported feeling better off.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
The dataset used in this study are available to the public under a Creative Commons license at https://doi.org/10.14281/18241.20.
Code Availability
The coding used in this study are provided in the supplementary section.
References
Acock, A.C. 2013. Discovering structural equation modeling using Stata. USA: Stata Press Books.
Ahn, S., C. Lee, and Y. Ko. 2022. Network social capital and health information acquisition. Patient Education and Counseling 105 (9): 2923–2933. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2022.05.007.
Bae, S.-M. 2019. The relationship between smartphone use for communication, social capital, and subjective well-being in Korean adolescents: Verification using multiple latent growth modeling. Children and Youth Services Review 96: 93–99. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2018.11.032.
Bartolini, S., and F. Sarracino. 2015. The dark side of chinese growth: Declining social capital and well-being in times of economic boom. World Development 74: 333–351. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2015.05.010.
Bradburn, N.M. 1969. The Structure of Psychological Well-Being. Oxford: Aldine.
Burger, M.J., P.S. Morrison, M. Hendriks, and M.M. Hoogerbrugge. 2020. Urban-rural happiness differentials across the world. In World happiness report 2020, ed. J. Helliwell, R. Layard, and J. Sachs, 66–93. New York: Sustainable Development Solutions Network.
Burt, R.S. 2000. The network structure of social capital. Research in Organizational Behavior 22: 345–423. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0191-3085(00)22009-1.
Calcagnini, G., and F. Perugini. 2019. Social capital and well-being in the Italian provinces. Socio-Economic Planning Sciences 68: 100668. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seps.2018.11.005.
Carpiano, R.M., and P.W. Hystad. 2011. Sense of community belonging in health surveys: What social capital is it measuring? Health & Place 17 (2): 606–617. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2010.12.018.
Costa, D.L., and M.E. Kahn. 2003. Understanding the American decline in social capital, 1952–1998. Kyklos 56 (1): 17–46. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6435.00208.
de Boef, W.S., S. Singh, P. Trivedi, K.S. Yadav, P.S. Mohanan, S. Kumar, J.P. Yadavendra, and K. Isaacs. 2021. Unleashing the social capital of self-help groups for strengthening seed systems in Uttar Pradesh India. Global Food Security 29: 100522. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfs.2021.100522.
de Rivera, J., L. Possell, J.A. Verette, and B. Weiner. 1989. Distinguishing elation, gladness, and joy. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 57 (6): 1015–1023. https://doi.org/10.1037//0022-3514.57.6.1015.
Diener, E. 1984. Subjective well-being. Psychological Bulletin 95 (3): 542–575. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.95.3.542.
Diener, E. 2006. Guidelines for national indicators of subjective well-being and Ill-being. Journal of Happiness Studies 7: 397–404. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-006-9000-y.
Diener, E., R.A. Emmons, R.J. Larsen, and S. Griffin. 1985. The satisfaction with life scale. Journal of Personality Assessment 49: 71–75. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa4901_13.
Diener, E., R. Inglehart, and L. Tay. 2013. Theory and validity of life satisfaction scales. Social Indicators Research 112 (3): 497–527. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-012-0076-y.
du Plooy, D.R., A. Lyons, and E.S. Kashima. 2020. Social capital and the well-being of migrants to Australia: Exploring the role of generalised trust and social network resources. International Journal of Intercultural Relations 79: 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2020.07.001.
Eichhorn, J. 2013. Unemployment needs context: How societal differences between countries moderate the loss in life-satisfaction for the unemployed. Journal of Happiness Studies 14: 1657–1680. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-012-9402-y.
Ferriss, A.L. 2002. Does material well-being affect non-material well-being? Social Indicators Research 60 (1–3): 275–280. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1021273317425.
Fiorillo, D., and F. Sabatini. 2011. Quality and quantity: The role of social interactions in self-reported individual health. Social Science & Medicine 73 (11): 1644–1652. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.09.007.
Fleche, S., C. Smith, and P. Sorsa. 2011. Exploring determinants of subjective wellbeing in OECD countries: Evidence from the world value survey. OECD Economics Department Working Papers No. 921, Paris: OECD Publishing.
Grassi, M., A. Nucera, E. Zanolin, E. Omenaas, J.M. Anto, and B. Leynaert. 2007. Performance comparison of likert and binary formats of SF-36 version 1.6 across ECRHS II adults populations. Value in Health 10 (6): 478–488.
Granovetter, M. 2005. The Impact of social structure on economic outcomes. Journal of Economic Perspectives 19 (1): 33–50. https://doi.org/10.1257/0895330053147958.
Haerpfer, C., R. Inglehart, A. Moreno, C. Welzel, K. Kizilova, J. Diez-Medrano, M. Lagos, P. Norris, E. Ponarin, B. Puranen, et al. (eds.). 2022. World values survey: Round seven, country-pooled datafile Version 4.0. Madrid, Spain & Vienna Austria: JD Systems Institute & WVSA Secretariat.
Han, J., S. Lee, and Y. Kwon. 2022. Can social capital improve the quality of life satisfaction for older adults? Focusing on the 2016 quality of life survey in Gyeonggi Province Korea. Cities 130: 103853. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2022.103853.
Han, Y., X. Chen, and R.Y.-N. Chung. 2023. Sense of control as a mediator of the association between social capital and health inequality in China. Preventive Medicine 166: 107382. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2022.107382.
Helliwell, J.F. 2006. Well-Being, Social Capital and Public Policy: What’s New? Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society 116 (510): 34–45.
Helliwell, J.F., and R.D. Putnam. 2004. The social context of well-being. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society b: Biological Sciences 359 (1449): 1435–1446. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2004.1522.
Hoogerbrugge, M., and M. Burger. 2022. Selective migration and urban-rural differences in subjective well-being: Evidence from the United Kingdom. Urban Studies 59 (10): 2092–2109.
Howell, R.T., and C.J. Howell. 2008. The relation of economic status to subjective well-being in developing countries: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin 134 (4): 536–560. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.134.4.536.
Huppert, F.A. 2009. Psychological well-being: Evidence regarding its causes and consequences. Applied Psychology Health and Well Being 1 (2): 137–164. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1758-0854.2009.01008.x.
Jong, S., A. Carrico, B. Cooper, L. Thompson, and C. Portillo. 2017. Engagement with health care providers as a mediator between social capital and quality of life among a sample of people living with HIV in the United States: Path-analysis. SSM-Population Health 3: 448–454. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2017.05.001.
Jung, J.H. 2014. Religious attendance, stress, and happiness in South Korea: Do gender and religious affiliation matter? Social Indicators Research 118: 1125–1145. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-013-0459-8.
Kaczmarek, L.D., A. Bujacz, and M. Eid. 2015. Comparative latent state–trait analysis of satisfaction with life measures: The steen happiness index and the satisfaction with life scale. Journal of Happiness Studies 16 (2): 443–453. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-014-9517-4.
Kim-Prieto, C., and E. Diener. 2009. Religion as a source of variation in the experience of positive and negative emotions. Journal of Positive Psychology 4 (6): 447–460. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760903271025.
Knack, S., and P. Keefer. 1997. Does social capital have an economic payoff? A cross-country investigation. The Quarterly Journal of Economics 112 (4): 1251–1288. https://doi.org/10.1162/003355300555475.
Lazarus, R.S. 1991. Cognition and motivation in emotion. The American Psychologist 46 (4): 352–367. https://doi.org/10.1037//0003-066x.46.4.352.
Linley, P.A., J. Maltby, A.M. Wood, G. Osborne, and R. Hurling. 2009. Measuring happiness: The higher order factor structure of subjective and psychological well-being measures. Personality and Individual Differences 47 (8): 878–884. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2009.07.010.
Lobao, L., and G. Hooks. 2003. Public employment, welfare transfers, and economic well-being across local populations: Does a lean and mean government benefit the masses? Social Forces 82 (2): 519–556. https://doi.org/10.1353/sof.2004.0016.
Luhmann, M., W. Hofmann, M. Eid, and R.E. Lucas. 2012. Subjective well-being and adaptation to life events: A meta-analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 102 (3): 592–615. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0025948.
Lun, V.M.C., and M.H. Bond. 2013. Examining the relation of religion and spirituality to subjective well-being across national cultures. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality 5 (4): 304–315. https://doi.org/10.1037/A0033641.
Lyubomirsky, S., L. King, and E. Diener. 2005. The benefits of frequent positive affect: Does happiness lead to success? Psychological Bulletin 131 (6): 803–855. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.131.6.803.
Margolis, R., and M. Myrskylä. 2013. Family, money, and health: Regional differences in the determinants of life satisfaction over the life course. Advances in Life Course Research 18 (2): 115–126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.alcr.2013.01.001.
Miret, M., F.F. Caballero, S. Chatterji, B. Olaya, B. Tobiasz-Adamczyk, S. Koskinen, M. Leonardi, J.M. Haro, and J.L. Ayuso-Mateos. 2014. Health and happiness: Cross-sectional household surveys in Finland, Poland and Spain. Bulletin of the World Health Organization 92: 716–725. https://doi.org/10.2471/BLT.13.129254.
Morrison, P.S., and M. Weckroth. 2018. Human values, subjective well-being and the metropolitan region. Regional Studies 52 (3): 325–337. https://doi.org/10.1080/00343404.2017.1331036.
Ngamaba, K.H., and D. Soni. 2018. Are happiness and life satisfaction different across religious groups? Exploring determinants of happiness and life satisfaction. Journal of Religion and Health 57 (6): 2118–2139. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-017-0481-2.
Nichols, C. 2021. Self-help groups as platforms for development: The role of social capital. World Development 146: 105575. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2021.105575.
Okulicz-Kozaryn, A., and M.J. Mazelis. 2018. Urbanism and happiness: A test of Wirth’s theory of urban life. Urban Studies 55 (2): 349–364. https://doi.org/10.7282/T3W37ZCC.
Paxton, P. 1999. Is social capital declining in the United States? A multiple indicator assessment. American Journal of Sociology 105: 88–127. https://doi.org/10.1086/210268.
Pedersen, L.M., A.L. Jakobsen, H.N. Buttenschøn, and A. Haagerup. 2023. Positive association between social capital and the quality of health care service: A cross-sectional study. International Journal of Nursing Studies 137: 104380. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2022.104380.
Putnam, R.D. 1993. The prosperous community: Social capital and public life. American Prospect 13 (4): 35–42.
Putnam, R. 1995. Tuning In, Tuning Out: The Strange Disappearance of Social Capital in America. PS: Political Science & Politics 28 (4): 664–683. https://doi.org/10.2307/420517.
Putnam, R.D. 2000. Bowling Alone. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Putnam, R.D. 2001. Social capital: Measurement and consequences. Canadian Journal of Policy Research 2 (1): 41–51.
Quigley, K.F.F. 1996. Trust: The social virtues and the creation of prosperity. Orbis 40 (2): 333. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0030-4387(96)90073-3.
Quintal, C., L.M. Ramos, and P. Torres. 2023. Disentangling the complexities of modelling when high social capital contributes to indicating good health. Social Science & Medicine 320: 115719. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.115719.
Robinson, R.V., and E.F. Jackson. 2001. Is trust in others declining in America? An ageperiod-cohort analysis. Social Science Research 30: 117–147. https://doi.org/10.1006/SSRE.2000.0692.
Rözer, J., and G. Kraaykamp. 2013. Income inequality and subjective well-being: A cross-national study on the conditional effects of individual and national characteristics. Social Indicators Research 113: 1009–1023. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-012-0124-7.
Sanyal, P. 2009. From credit to collective action: The Role of microfinance in promoting women’s social capital and normative influence. American Sociological Review 74 (4): 529–550. https://doi.org/10.1177/000312240907400402.
Saperia, S., S. Da Silva, I. Siddiqui, K. McDonald, O. Agid, G. Remington, and G. Foussias. 2018. Investigating the predictors of happiness, life satisfaction and success in schizophrenia. Comprehensive Psychiatry 81: 42–47. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comppsych.2017.11.005.
Sun, G. 2019. Making the social work: Toward a functionalist view of social governance. Journal of Chinese Political Science 24: 495–512. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11366-018-9582-3.
Szreter, S., and M. Woolcock. 2004. Health by association? Social capital, social theory, and the political economy of public health. International Journal of Epidemiology 33 (4): 650–667. https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyh013.
Tang, L., X. Luo, W. Yu, and Y. Huang. 2020. The effect of political participation and village support on farmers happiness. Journal of Chinese Political Science 25 (4): 639–661. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11366-020-09680-w.
Torsvik, G. 2000. Social capital and economic development: A plea for the mechanisms. Rationality and Society 12 (4): 451–476. https://doi.org/10.1177/104346300012004005.
Tutz, G. 2020. Hierarchical models for the analysis of likert scales in regression and item response analysis. International Statistical Review 89: 18–35. https://doi.org/10.1111/insr.12396.
Veenhoven, R. 1994. Is happiness a trait? Tests of the theory that a better society does not make people any happier. Social Indicators Research 32 (2): 101–106. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01078732.
Watanabe, J., T. Kimura, T. Nakamura, D. Suzuki, T. Takemoto, and A. Tamakoshi. 2022. Associations of social capital and health at a city with high aging rate and low population density. SSM-Population Health 17: 100981. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2021.100981.
Yu, X. 2022. Bourdieu’s talk: High-education-low-income issue among skilled immigrants from chinese mainland in canada. Chinese Political Science Review 7: 288–304. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41111-021-00183-4.
Zhang, W. 2022. Social capital, income and subjective well-being: Evidence in rural China. Heliyon 8 (1): e08705. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e08705.
Zheng, B., Y. Gu, and C. Zhang. 2022. Migration, Social Exclusion, and Subjective Well-Being: Evidence from China Labor Dynamics Survey. Chinese Political Science Review 7: 197–215. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41111-021-00187-0.
Zhou, L., P. Ju, Y. Li, B. Liu, Y. Wang, X. Zhang, and H. Yin. 2023. Preventive health behaviors among the middle-aged and elderly in China: Does social capital matter? Preventive Medicine Reports 35: 102329. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2023.102329.
Acknowledgements
The views expressed in this paper are those of the author and do not reflect the views of the institution to which he is affiliated to. Although any errors of the author shouldn’t reflect poorly on the reputation of esteemed individuals from the relevant institution. Author thanks his colleagues for their contributions of knowledge and insight that greatly aided the research.
Funding
No funding was received for conducting this study.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
The author confirms sole responsibility for the following: study conception and design, data coding, analysis and interpretation of results, and manuscript preparation.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
Not applicable.
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Appendix: Factor Loadings and Unique variances for Civic Engagement Measure
Appendix: Factor Loadings and Unique variances for Civic Engagement Measure
Scree plot of eigenvalues after factor
Factor 1 | Psi | KMO | |
|---|---|---|---|
Not justifiable: claiming government benefits | 0.5633 | 0.6827 | 0.7870 |
Not justifiable: avoiding a fare on public transport | 0.6414 | 0.5886 | 0.7679 |
Not justifiable: cheating on taxes | 0.7257 | 0.4734 | 0.7016 |
Not justifiable: someone accepting a bribe | 0.6893 | 0.5248 | 0.7150 |
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Sharma, S. Role of Social Capital in Determining Happiness and Life Satisfaction: Mediation of Self-reported Health Using Path Analysis. Fudan J. Hum. Soc. Sci. (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40647-023-00394-w
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40647-023-00394-w