A study published yesterday in Nature Mental Health found that high levels of neighborhood trust may lower the incidence of severe mental illness (SMI) in that neighborhood—but not everyone may benefit from this social capital.
Angela Song-Chase, M.Sc., of University College London, and colleagues made use of a 2002 Swedish survey in which more than 23,000 Stockholm-area residents answered questions on three types of social capital:
- Political trust: How much do you trust your municipal and county politicians?
- Welfare trust: How do you rate your area’s health care, social services, or police?
- Personal trust: How safe and helpful is your neighborhood?
Next, the researchers used Swedish health registries to examine new diagnoses of psychotic disorders (affective and non-affective) or bipolar disorder between 2002 and 2016 across more than 800 neighborhoods in Stockholm County.
Overall, every standard deviation increase in a neighborhood’s personal trust was associated with an 8% reduced rate of bipolar disorder and an 11% reduced rate of non-affective psychosis; there was no clear association between personal trust and affective psychosis.
However, when examining demographic subgroups, the benefits of personal trust were evident only for neighborhood residents of Swedish and/or European ancestry. Among African and Middle Eastern residents, higher personal trust significantly increased the risk of bipolar disorder or non-affective psychosis. There was no observed benefit or risk for individuals of Asian descent or mixed heritage.
Song-Chase and colleagues also did not identify any associations between the other two forms of social capital assessed and SMI.
“From the perspective of intergroup contact theory … high levels of bonding or relational social capital perceived by the ingroup may provide conditions that uphold cycles of structural racism and psychosocial disempowerment, at the cost of poorer mental health, among other outcomes, for outgroups,” the researchers wrote.
“We suggest that public policy could adopt strategies that promote positive intergroup contact as the grounds for developing and sustaining inclusive social capital that connects across different sociodemographic groups,” they continued.