Almedom Astier M
Department of Biology, Tufts University, 165 Packard Avenue, Medford, MA 02155, USA.
Soc Sci Med. 2005 Sep;61(5):943-64. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2004.12.025. Epub 2005 Mar 27.
An interdisciplinary interrogation of primary evidence linking social capital and mental health sought to establish: (1) 'quality of evidence' (assessed in terms of study design, methods used to address stated questions, rigor of data analysis, and logic and clarity of interpretation of results), and (2) applicability of the evidence to public health policy and practice with respect to mental health. It is found that social capital, a complex and compound construct, can be both an asset and a liability with respect to mental health of those in receipt of and those providing services and other interventions. The most meaningful assessment of social capital or components thereof may examine individual access to rather than possession of social capital, a property of groups, and therefore an ecological variable. Theoretical advances in research on social capital serve to identify mainly two types of social capital: bonding (between individuals in a group) and bridging (between groups). Each type of social capital has cognitive and/or structural component(s) and may operate at micro and/or macro level(s). Effective mental health policy and service provision may build or strengthen bridging social capital and benefit from both bonding and bridging social capital where either or both exist. Established indicators of social capital are amenable to quantitative and qualitative assessment, preferably in tandem. However studies that employ combined research design are rare or non-existent. Interdisciplinary multi-method investigations and analyses are called for in order to unravel mechanisms whereby social capital and mental health might be meaningfully associated.
一项对将社会资本与心理健康联系起来的原始证据进行的跨学科审视，旨在确定：（1）“证据质量”（根据研究设计、用于解决既定问题的方法、数据分析的严谨性以及结果解释的逻辑性和清晰度进行评估），以及（2）该证据在心理健康方面对公共卫生政策和实践的适用性。研究发现，社会资本是一个复杂的复合概念，对于接受服务和提供服务及其他干预措施的人群的心理健康而言，它既可能是一种资产，也可能是一种负担。对社会资本或其组成部分最有意义的评估可能是考察个人获取社会资本的情况，而非拥有社会资本的情况，因为社会资本是群体的一种属性，因此是一个生态变量。社会资本研究的理论进展主要识别出两种类型的社会资本：联结型（群体内个体之间）和桥接型（群体之间）。每种类型的社会资本都有认知和/或结构成分，并且可能在微观和/或宏观层面发挥作用。有效的心理健康政策和服务提供可以构建或加强桥接型社会资本，并在存在联结型或桥接型社会资本（或两者都存在）的情况下，从这两种社会资本中受益。既定的社会资本指标适合进行定量和定性评估，最好同时进行。然而，采用综合研究设计的研究很少或不存在。需要进行跨学科的多方法调查和分析，以揭示社会资本与心理健康可能有意义地关联的机制。
