title: Influence of different domains of social capital on psychological distress among Croatian high school students.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Social capital has been shown to have positive effects on multiple health outcomes among young people (i.e., obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and infectious diseases). Studies are suggesting that social capital is an important asset for the health and wellbeing of children and adolescents, including for their mental health. We sought to examine the influences of different domains of social capital - in the family, in the neighbourhood, and at school - on levels of psychological distress among high school students in Croatia.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross-sectional survey of 3427 high school students (1688 males and 1739 females), aged 17-18 years, was carried out in the 2013/14 school year (response rate: 93.8%). Logistic regression was used to examine the influence of family, neighbourhood and school social capital on the risk of high psychological distress, measured by the Kessler-6 scale.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Adjusting for age, school, gender, body mass index, self-perceived socioeconomic status, self-rated health and physical activity, high family support in school (OR 0.37; 95% CI: 0.27-0.51), high neighbourhood trust (OR 0.62; 95% CI: 0.53-0.73), high teacher-student interpersonal trust (OR 0.74; 95% CI: 0.62-0.89) and high student interpersonal trust (OR 0.79; 95% CI: 0.65-0.97) was each associated with lower odds of psychological distress. When all of the social capital variables were entered simultaneously, higher social capital in each domain was inversely associated with psychological distress.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Family support in school, neighbourhood trust, teacher-student interpersonal trust and student interpersonal trust were significantly inversely associated with psychological distress among adolescents. Intervention and policies that leverage community social capital might serve as means of mental health promotion among youth.
authors.affiliation: Department of General and Applied Kinesiology, University of Zagreb Faculty of Kinesiology, Zagreb, Croatia ; Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University, Harvard T.H.Chan School of Public Health, Takemi Program in International Health, Boston, USA.
authors.forename: Dario
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Novak
authors.affiliation: Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard T.H.Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts USA.
authors.forename: Ichiro
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kawachi
keywords: High school; Psychological distress; Social capital; Students