The Interplay among Family and Community Factors in Predicting the Depression of Chinese Adolescents: The Significant Role of Social Capital

Qiaobing Wu, University of Southern California

This study applied the social capital theoretical framework to investigate the depression of adolescents in mainland China. Specifically, it investigated how social capital (i.e., resources inherent in social relationships that facilitate a social outcome) embedded in the family and the community, together with family human capital (i.e., parents’ educational attainments) and family financial capital (i.e., household economic conditions), influenced the depression of Chinese adolescents. Using data from a NIH-funded ongoing longitudinal study, China Seven Cities Study (CSCS), the author employed structural equation modeling to test the differential effects of community social capital, family social capital, family human capital, and family financial capital on adolescent depression, and to reveal the mechanism by which these family and community factors function through both direct and indirect pathways. Implications of this study for theory, practice, and policy were also discussed.