Investigating of the Relationship between Social Capital and Mental Health Participants: Students of the Social Sciences Department, Shiraz University (in Persian)

Within the framework of a country's development and besides the other types of capitals (natural, human and material), social capital could be regarded as both the input and output of development. In the economy of the underdeveloped countries, social capital has been called as the missing link of development. Due to the impact of social capital on the different aspects of human lives and their mental health, this study attempts to examine the impact of the relationship between social capital and mental health. The aim of this study is to examine the impact of social capital and its various dimensions (inner-group, outer-group and communicative) on students' mental health. This study was conducted among the students of the Social Sciences Department of Shiraz University through benefiting from the theories of Woolkak and Naryan and utilizing the survey type of methodology. The type of sampling used was of quota nature and the number of participants was 273. The results statistically indicate that, there is a positive and meaningful relationship between social capital and mental health. In a sense, if a person has the benefit higher level of social capital, he/she will consequently have a higher level of mental health. There was also a positive and meaningful relationship between inner-group social capital and mental health consequently. But no meaningful relationship was observed between the two variables of outer-group social capital and mental health.