Lijun Song

Social Capital and Health Inequality: Evidence from Taiwan∗:

Does social capital, resources embedded in social relationships, influence health? This research examines whether social capital impacts depressive symptoms and overall perceived health status over and above the effects of social support. Our analyses use unique data from the Taiwan Social Change Survey collected in 1997, and measures social capital and social support through two network instruments (the position generator and the name generator). Results replicate the effects of social support, as measured through the name generator, on both outcomes. Results show that social capital, as measured through the position generator, has direct effects on both outcomes net of social support, while social support is a stronger predictor than social capital. This research indicates that social capital contributes to health beyond and distinct from the contribution of social support, and it suggests that social capital and social support are two independent relationship-based causes of disease which require different instruments of measurement.

Social Capital and Psychological Distress

The author proposes a conceptual model to explain the diverse roles of social capital—resources embedded in social networks—in the social production of health. Using a unique national U.S. sample, the author estimated a path analysis model to examine the direct and indirect effects of social capital on psychological distress and its intervening effects on the relationships between other structural antecedents and psychological distress. The results show that social capital is inversely associated with psychological distress, and part of that effect is indirect through subjective social status. Social capital also acts as an intervening mechanism to link seven social factors (age, gender, race-ethnicity, education, occupational prestige, annual family income, and voluntary participation) with psychological distress. This study develops the theory of social capital as network resources and demonstrates the complex functions of social capital as a distinct social determinant of health.

Social Capital and Health

“The real nature of man is the totality of social relations” (Marx 1963: 83). All individuals dwell in a network of social relationships. Their health conditions can be contingent on structural attributes of their network contexts. Since Durkheim’s classic study on suicide ([1897] 1951), there has been a long research tradition on diverse aspects of social relationships and health in sociology and other social sciences (for reviews see Berkman et al. 2000; House et al. 1988; Pescosolido and Levy 2002; Smith and Christakis 2008; Song et al. 2011; Umberson and Montez 2010). In the last two decades social capital has grown into one of the most popular but controversial relationship-based theoretical tools in the multidisciplinary health literature.

Do resources of network members help in help seeking? Social capital and health information search☆

Abstract Does social capital as resources of network members affect health information search? Analyzing data from the 2004 General Social Survey in the United States, this study measures two social capital indicators (average education of network members and proportion of network members with a high school degree or higher) using the name generator. Most results are consistent using those two indicators. Both indicators are positively associated with frequency of health information seeking and seekers’ frequency of use of two sources (friends or relatives and the Internet). Also average education of network members is positively associated with seekers’ diversity of used sources and frequency of consultation with medical professionals. But neither indicator is associated with seekers’ frequency of use of other four sources (health-related magazines or newsletters, general magazines, daily newspapers, and radio or television programs). The findings demonstrate the theoretical utility of social capital in the social dynamics of medical help-seeking.

Raising network resources while raising children? Access to social capital by parenthood status, gender, and marital status

Does raising non-adult children facilitate or restrict access to social capital as network resources? Using data from a national sample of adults in the United States, I do not find evidence for the direct effect of parenthood on the three dimensions of social capital (diversity, extensity, and quality), but instead I find evidence for its interaction effects on the quality of social capital. There is marginal evidence that parenthood status is associated with the quality of social capital positively for men but negatively for women. There is evidence that parenthood status is associated with the quality of social capital positively for the married but negatively for the unmarried. Also parenthood status is associated with the quality of social capital negatively for unmarried women but positively for the other three gender-marital groups, in particular unmarried men. These findings suggest the structural interplay of parenthood status with gender and marital status, and indicate the motherhood penalty, the fatherhood premium, the single-parenthood penalty, the married-parenthood premium, and the single-motherhood penalty in reaching higher-quality, rather than more diverse and extensive, social capital.

Does Receiving Unsolicited Support Help or Hurt? Receipt of Unsolicited Job Leads and Depression

Does receiving unsolicited support protect or hurt health? This study focuses on the receipt of unsolicited job leads and examines opposite hypotheses on its main and interaction effects with economic strain (lack of full-time employment and the duration of lack of full-time employment) and financial dissatisfaction on depression using nationally representative data of working-age adults in the United States. The distress-reducing perspective expects its main effect to be negative, but the distress-inducing perspective predicts the opposite. Furthermore, the need contingency argument anticipates the two competing perspectives—distress reducing and distress inducing—to have stronger explanatory power for adults with more economic strain and financial dissatisfaction and those with less economic strain and financial dissatisfaction, respectively. Results are consistent with the distress-inducing perspective and the need contingency argument. The findings indicate that the receipt of unsolicited job leads often plays a deleterious role for mental health but that the role varies according to the need for job leads.

The Effect of the Cultural Revolution on Educational Homogamy in Urban China.

This article demonstrates that the Cultural Revolution led to a temporary decline in educational homogamy in urban China, which was reversed when the Cultural Revolution ended. Previous studies on educational homogamy in China have paid incomplete attention to China’s shifting institutional structures. This research applies institutional theory to the trend of educational homogamy in urban China. During the Cultural Revolution (1966–76) state policies lowered educational legitimacy, educational homogeneity and mating opportunities in school in the urban marriage market while enhancing them before and after. From the institutional perspective I hypothesize that the strength of educational homogamy in urban China during the Cultural Revolution was weaker than before and after. I use log-multiplicative layer effect models to analyze data representative of urban residents in 20 cities. I find moderate but significant evidence for the institutional hypotheses. Educational assortative mating is subject to political intervention in urban China.

Does who you know in the positional hierarchy protect or hurt? Social capital, comparative reference group, and depression in two societies

Does the socioeconomic status (SES) that ones (egos) network members (alters) occupy indicate social resources or social comparison standards in the dynamics of health across culture? Using nationally representative data simultaneously collected from the United States and urban China, this study examines two competing theories-social capital and comparative reference group-in the two societies and compares their different application across the two societies using two cultural explanations, relational dependence and self-evaluation motive. Social capital theory expects absolute accessed SES and the size of higher accessed socioeconomic positions to protect health, and the size of lower accessed socioeconomic positions to harm health. But comparative reference group theory predicts the opposite. Additionally, the relational dependence explanation anticipates social capital theory to be more applicable to urban China and comparative reference group theory to be more applicable to the United States. The self-evaluation motive explanation expects the same pattern across the two societies in the examination of the size of lower accessed socioeconomic positions but the opposite pattern in the analysis of absolute accessed SES and the size of higher accessed socioeconomic positions. This study focuses on depressive symptoms and measures accessed occupational status. Results are consistent with the self-evaluation motive explanation. They support both social capital theory and comparative reference group theory in the United States but only the latter theory in urban China.

Does Knowing People in Authority Protect or Hurt? Authoritative Contacts and Depression in Urban China

Does knowing people in authoritative positions protect or hurt health? This study examines two competing theories on the health effects of authoritative contacts using nationally representative data of working-age urban adults in China. Social capital theory expects authoritative contacts to protect health directly and indirectly through increasing financial satisfaction and the receipt of unsolicited job leads, but comparative reference group theory predicts the opposite. This study focuses on one mental health outcome, depression, and measures access to two types of authoritative contacts in the workplace: the leader of the work unit and the leader of the supervising work unit. Results from path analysis show no evidence for the direct effects but show evidence for the indirect effects of knowing such leaders. Consistent with comparative reference group theory, knowing people in authority in the work context is positively associated with depression indirectly through increasing financial dissatisfaction and receipt of unsolicited job leads in urban China.

Institutional Embeddedness of Network Embeddedness in the Workplace: Social Integration at Work and Employee’s Health Across Three Societies

Purpose – This study examines the association between social integration at work and health in three societies, urban China, Taiwan, and the United States.Methodology/approach – It analyzes nationally representative survey data collected simultaneously from those three societies. It measures five indicators of social integration at work (the percentage of work contacts among daily contacts, the number of daily work contacts, the percentage of daily work contacts within the company/organization among all daily work contacts, the number of daily work contacts within the company/organization, and the percentage of work discussants within the company/organization) and two health outcomes (psychological distress and self-reported health limitation).Findings – It finds stronger evidence for the positive health effect of social integration at work in urban China than in Taiwan and the United States.Research limitations/implications – The data set has two limitations: (1) it is cross-sectional; and (2) it was collected from national samples of adults aged 21–64, currently or previously employed, and does not have information on elderly employed adults. This study implies that social integration at work is more likely to protect health in urban China than in Taiwan and the United States.