Social capital, the miniaturization of community and cannabis smoking among young adults.

OBJECTIVES

The impact of social participation, trust and the miniaturization of community, i.e. the combination of high social participation and low trust, on cannabis smoking was investigated.

METHODS

The 2000 public health survey in Scania is a cross-sectional study. A total of 13,715 persons aged 18-80 years, of which 3,978 persons aged 18-34 years were included in this study, answered a postal questionnaire, which represents 59% of the random sample. A logistic regression model was used to investigate the association between the social capital variables and ever having experienced cannabis smoking. The multivariate analysis was performed to investigate the importance of possible confounders (age, country of origin and education) on the differences in having experienced cannabis smoking according to social participation, trust and their four combination categories.

RESULTS

Cannabis smoking is not associated with social participation, but positively associated with low trust among both men and women, and the miniaturization of community, i.e. the combination of high social participation and low trust, among men.

CONCLUSIONS

This study suggests that the miniaturization of community, i.e. the combination of high social participation and low levels of generalized trust of other people, may enhance the experience of cannabis smoking.