Social capital, immigrant status, and adolescent mental health: the role of family, school, and neighborhood

Mental well-being during adolescence is a salient predictor of quality of life in adulthood. Social capital is proposed to be a positive social resource promoting mental health in adolescence. However, little work has been done to simultaneously evaluate various aspects of social capital spanning multiple social domains of adolescents. This study examines the relative effects of social capital at the family-, school-, and neighborhood-level on overall adolescent mental well-being described as mental wellbeing and internalizing problems, while also evaluating the potential differential effects of social capital for immigrant status. Using the 2003 California Health Interview Survey, this study finds that family social capital, specifically parental presence, adolescent perceptions of parental knowledge of their whereabouts, and perceived caring for the adolescent's welfare independently exerted significant and positive influences on adolescent mental health net of the effects of school- and neighborhood-level social capital. Social capital within the school is not significant for adolescent mental health. Several neighborhood-level measures for social capital are included and perceived informal social control is inversely related to both adolescent internalizing problems and mental well-being. Social cohesion among neighbors is positive but marginally significant for adolescent mental well-being. This study finds that both family and neighborhood-level social capital are important positive indicators for overall adolescent mental well-being, demonstrating the importance of evaluating multiple social domains for adolescent development. Interaction effects of first-generation immigrant status were tested and are found to have significant differences for the influence of family, school, and neighborhood social capital on overall adolescent mental well-being.