title: Social capital - a mixed blessing for women? A cross-sectional study of different forms of social relations and self-rated depression in Moscow.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Depression is a major health problem worldwide, especially among women. The condition has been related to a number of factors, such as alcohol consumption, economic situation and, more recently, to social capital. However, there have been relatively few studies about the social capital-depression relationship in Eastern Europe. This paper aims to fill this gap by examining the association between different forms of social capital and self-rated depression in Moscow. Differences between men and women will also be examined, with a special focus on women.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data was obtained from the Moscow Health Survey, which was conducted in 2004 with 1190 Muscovites aged 18 years or above. For depression, a single-item self-reported measure was used. Social capital was operationalised through five questions about different forms of social relations. Logistic regression analysis was undertaken to estimate the association between social capital and self-rated depression, separately for men and women.
  
  
  RESULTS
  More women (48 %) than men (36 %) reported that they had felt depressed during the last year. An association was found between social capital and reported depression only among women. Women who were divorced or widowed or who had little contact with relatives had higher odds of reporting depression than those with more family contact. Women who regularly engaged with people from different age groups outside of their families were also more likely to report depression than those with less regular contact.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Social capital can be a mixed blessing for women. Different forms of social relations can lead to different health outcomes, both positive and negative. Although the family is important for women's mental health in Moscow, extra-familial relations across age groups can be mentally distressing. This suggests that even though social capital can be a valuable resource for mental health, some of its forms can be mentally deleterious to maintain, especially for women. More research is needed on both sides to social capital. A special focus should be placed on bridging social relations among women in order to better understand the complex association between social capital and depression in Russia and elsewhere.
authors.affiliation: Stockholm Centre for Health and Social Change (SCOHOST), Department of Sociology, School of Social Sciences, Södertörn University, 141 89, Huddinge, Sweden. sara.ferlander@sh.se.
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ferlander
authors.affiliation: Stockholm Centre for Health and Social Change (SCOHOST), Department of Sociology, School of Social Sciences, Södertörn University, 141 89, Huddinge, Sweden.|European Centre on Health of Societies in Transition (ECOHOST), London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK.|Department of Human Ecology, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Stickley
authors.affiliation: Department of Quality of Life Measurement Problems at the Institute of Economics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia.
authors.forename: Olga
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Kislitsyna
authors.affiliation: Stockholm Centre for Health and Social Change (SCOHOST), Department of Sociology, School of Social Sciences, Södertörn University, 141 89, Huddinge, Sweden.
authors.forename: Tanya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Jukkala
authors.affiliation: Stockholm Centre for Health and Social Change (SCOHOST), Department of Social Work, School of Social Sciences, Södertörn University, Huddinge, Sweden.
authors.forename: Per
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Carlson
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Ilkka Henrik
authors.initials: IH
authors.lastname: Mäkinen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D059026:Diagnostic Self Evaluation; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009031:Moscow / Q000453:epidemiology; D012737:Sex Factors; D066270:Social Capital; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D016387:Women's Health