Social Capital and Adolescent Wellbeing

Social capital describes the resources available to individuals through their social networks, trust and shared norms. In adolescence, when identity formation and peer relationships are paramount, social capital can shape mental health, academic engagement and resilience. Family support, peer cohesion and connections within schools and communities offer adolescents emotional security, opportunities for skill development and pathways to seek help. Bonding social capital within close-knit networks promotes trust and mutual aid, while bridging and linking forms extend access to diverse information and institutional support. A growing evidence base highlights how these dimensions of social capital interact with socioeconomic factors, neighbourhood environments and digital communities to influence both risk and protective pathways in youth wellbeing. Interventions that foster inclusive school climates, family communication and community participation have demonstrated benefits for life satisfaction, emotional regulation and reduced psychological distress. Given the global rise in adolescent mental health concerns, understanding the mechanisms through which social capital operates is critical for policy and practice aimed at nurturing healthy transitions to adulthood.

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Social Capital and Adolescent Wellbeing publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in social capital and adolescent wellbeing across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Social capital: The collective value of social networks and the inclinations that arise from these networks to do things for each other, fostering cooperation and support.

Bonding social capital: Strong ties within homogeneous groups (for example, close family or peer circles) that generate mutual support and solidarity.

Bridging social capital: Looser connections across diverse social groups that facilitate access to new information, resources and broader perspectives.

Sense of belonging: The feeling of acceptance and inclusion within a social group or community, which contributes to emotional security and identity formation.

Mediator: A variable through which an independent factor (such as socioeconomic status) exerts an effect on an outcome (such as wellbeing), explaining part of the relationship.

References

1. Does social capital aid in leveling the income gradient in child mental health? A structural analysis of the left-behind and not-left-behind Chinese children. BMC Public Health (2023).
2. Social Capital in Relation to Mental Health—The Voices of Adolescents in Sweden. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (2023).
3. The mediating role of social capital in the relationship between socioeconomic status and adolescent wellbeing: evidence from Ghana. BMC Public Health (2020).