The Mediating Role Of Social Capital In Ethnic Disparities In Mental Health.

Abstract

Background: Depression is the most common mental disorder, affecting 322 million people globally. Ethnic minorities in particular are shown to be more vulnerable, with higher chances of struggling with depression. Research suggests that social capital might be one of the factors that play a role in these disparities. Objective: To study the association between ethnicity, social capital, and mental health in the general population of the Netherlands. More specifically, to test if social capital mediates the association between ethnicity and depression. Methods: For this study, data from the sixth wave of the European Social Survey (ESS) were used (N = 1845). The association between ethnicity (native Dutch and ethnic minorities) on depression (measured by an eight-item version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale) was tested using regression analysis. The mediating effect of social capital (measured using several questions assessing the levels of structural and cognitive social capital) in this association was tested using PROCESS Macro. Results: The total effect of X (ethnicity) on Y (depression) in the PROCESS Macro analysis was b = 1.88, p < .001. After including three mediating variables of social capital (social cohesion, social network, and social participation), the direct effect of ethnicity on depression score was decreased to 1.53 p < .001. This suggests a partial mediation, with total indirect effect of b = 0.35, 95% CI [0.16, 0.58]. Conclusions: Results in this study showed that people with minority background in the Netherlands had significantly higher prevalence of depressive symptoms, compared to native Dutch as a reference population. Moreover, it showed that social capital partly mediates this association. Around 19% of this difference on prevalence of depressive symptoms is explained by the indicators of cognitive and structural social capital.