Title

Associations between social capital and depression: A study of adult twins.

Authors

Hannah Cohen-Cline, Center for Outcomes Research and Education, Providence Health and Services, United StatesFollow
Shirley Aa Beresford
Wendy Barrington
Ross Matsueda
Jon Wakefield
Glen E Duncan

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

3-1-2018

Publication Title

Health & place

Keywords

psjh_core; Depression; Social capital; Twin study

Abstract

Social capital is associated with depression independently of individual-level risk factors. We used a sample of 1586 same-sex twin pairs to test the association between seven measures of social capital and two related measures of neighborhood characteristics with depressive symptoms accounting for uncontrolled selection factors (i.e., genetics and shared environment). All measures of cognitive social capital and neighborhood characteristics were associated with less depressive symptoms in between-twin analysis. However, only measures of cognitive social capital were significantly associated with less depressive symptoms within-pairs. These results demonstrate that cognitive social capital is associated with depressive symptoms free of confounding from genetic and environmental factors shared within twins.

Clinical Institute

Mental Health

Department

Behavioral Health

Recommended Citation

Cohen-Cline, Hannah; Beresford, Shirley Aa; Barrington, Wendy; Matsueda, Ross; Wakefield, Jon; and Duncan, Glen E, "Associations between social capital and depression: A study of adult twins." (2018). Articles, Abstracts, and Reports. 20.
https://digitalcommons.providence.org/publications/20