The Impact of Social Capital on Mental Health: Evidence from the China Family Panel Survey

The influence of social capital on mental health is a controversial topic. As some studies have pointed out, cognitive social capital significantly affects mental health but structural social capital does not. Using data from the China Family Panel Survey, this study measured social capital from social help, social trust, social networks, and social participation, and took regional average level of social capital as the instrumental variables, and applied a two-stage least squares regression. We found that the mental health of residents who trust and help each other is significantly higher than that of residents without trust and mutual help. When residents’ efforts to maintain social networks increase, their mental health significantly improves. These results are robust. Furthermore, the impact of social capital on mental health was heterogeneous in terms of urbanicity, gender, age, and area. These results are helpful for making policies for promoting residents’ mental health.