University Mental Health Research Institute (UMHRI), Athens, Greece; First Department of Psychiatry, Medical School, University of Athens, Eginition Hospital, Athens, Greece.
School of Health Sciences, Department of Mental Health and Behavioral Sciences, University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
Soc Sci Med. 2014 Jan;100:141-7. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2013.11.006. Epub 2013 Nov 15.
The ongoing financial crisis in Greece has yielded adverse effects on the mental health of the population. In this context, the particular study investigates the link between two indices of cognitive social capital; namely interpersonal and institutional trust, and the presence of major depression and generalized anxiety disorder. A random and representative sample of 2256 respondents took part in a cross-sectional nationwide telephone survey the time period February-April 2011 (Response Rate = 80.5%), after being recruited from the national phone number databank. Major depression and generalized anxiety disorder were assessed with the Structured Clinical Interview, while for interpersonal and institutional trust the pertinent questions of the European Social Survey were utilized. Socio-demographic variables were also encompassed in the research instrument, while participants' degree of financial strain was assessed through the Index of Personal Economic Distress. Both interpersonal and institutional trust were found to constitute protective factors against the presence of major depression, but not against generalized anxiety disorder for people experiencing low economic hardship. Nonetheless, in people experiencing high financial strain, interpersonal and institutional trust were not found to bear any association with the presence of the two disorders. Consistent with these, the present study shows that the effect of social capital on mental health is not uniform, as evident by the different pattern of results for the two disorders. Furthermore, cognitive social capital no longer exerts its protective influence on mental health if individuals experience high economic distress. As a corollary of this, interventions aiming at mitigating the mental health effects of economic downturns cannot rely solely on the enhancement of social capital, but also on alleviating economic burden.
希腊持续的金融危机对民众的心理健康产生了不利影响。在这种背景下，本研究特别调查了认知社会资本的两个指标（人际信任和制度信任）与重度抑郁症和广泛性焦虑症之间的关系。在 2011 年 2 月至 4 月期间，通过从全国电话号码数据库中招募，一个由 2256 名受访者组成的随机、代表性的全国电话调查参与了横断面研究（应答率为 80.5%）。通过结构性临床访谈评估重度抑郁症和广泛性焦虑症，而人际信任和制度信任则采用欧洲社会调查的相关问题进行评估。研究工具还包括社会人口统计学变量，同时通过个人经济困境指数评估参与者的经济压力程度。人际信任和制度信任均被发现是预防重度抑郁症发生的保护因素，但对于经济困难程度较低的人来说，它们与广泛性焦虑症无关。然而，在经济压力较大的人群中，人际信任和制度信任与这两种疾病的发生均无关联。与这些结果一致的是，本研究表明社会资本对心理健康的影响并不一致，这两种疾病的结果模式明显不同。此外，如果个体经历高经济压力，认知社会资本将不再对心理健康产生保护作用。因此，旨在减轻经济衰退对心理健康影响的干预措施不能仅依赖于社会资本的增强，还需要减轻经济负担。
