Psychiatric morbidity and social capital in rural communities of the Greek North Aegean islands

✍ Scribed by Andromachi Tseloni; Anastasia Zissi; Petros Skapinakis

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 156 KB
• Volume: 38
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0090-4392
• DOI: 10.1002/jcop.20414

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Which facets of social capital affect mental health in rural settings? This study explores the association between different aspects of social capital and psychiatric morbidity in rural communities of the Greek North Aegean islands. A large number of individual and community characteristics that may influence psychiatric morbidity are concurrently examined in multilevel models to account for the clustering of individuals within rural settings. The current findings indicate that psychiatric morbidity is, to a large extent, clustered within rural communities. Individuals' perceived divisions in the community, i.e., political party preference, landholdings, low social support networks, and lack of perceived solidarity, are associated with psychiatric morbidity according to theoretical expectation. At the community level, this risk is lower in villages with over 250 residents, where there are youth clubs or a common threat, for instance, property crime. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.