Running Head: SOCIAL CAPITAL AND DEPRESSION 1

How Social Capital Can Affect Depression in Youths

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How Social Capital Can Affect Depression in Youths

Depression is a progressively prevalent phenomenon amongst youths in the world. It is a

condition associated with physical, psychological, and social distress that ranges from mild mood

variations to severe medical distress. Typically, it has been operationalized as a depressive

syndrome, depressive mood, as well as depressive disorder. It is generally defined as a single

indicator of a cluster of syndromes that encompass dysphoric effects. Various scholars have

established evidence that youths experience increased vulnerability to mental heal when they

face depressed moods. Depression during every individual’s youth period has both short term

and long-term effects on divergent extents including substance abuse, impaired interpersonal

relationships, deviant activities, and mental health (Koller and Mathieson, 2008). It is linked to

youths’ low self-esteem, poor academic performance, augmented health risk behavior, and low

social competence. Understanding social capital interplay among contextual factors that trigger

depression in youths will facilitate development of effective intervention and prevention plans.

Community social capital is the most apparent factor that trigger youths’ depressive

symptoms. It poses both direct and indirect effects. Regions where youths inhabit offer adaptive

social setting that grow or decay their involvements by outlining their opportunities and

resources. Immediate society molds a youth’s experiences. Civic social capital comprises of

social associations amongst youths. Specifically, it infers to the networks, sense of belonging to

the society, public engagement, and norms which facilitate collective action for youth’s

wellbeing (Koller and Mathieson, 2008). Community creates extra familiar social network that

facilitates both social monitoring and control for youths existing in a zone. It also allows parents

to reinforce each other to better monitor and control actions of their children thus not allowing

them to develop depression triggers.

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Family social capital is the regarded as the relationship between parents and children. The

attention and time parents direct to their young adolescents helps monitor and promote their well

being besides social adjustment. Indicators such as family structure, parent-child interaction,

parental monitoring, and family norms determines a child’s well-being (Awgu, Magura, and

Coryn, 2016). Family structure, for instance, physical structure influences parents’ involvement

and attention to their children. Parent and youth relationships for example, time spent sharing

activities together molds a youth’s welfare. Parental monitoring, for instance, knowing the

youths’ friends, what is doing, and where they are is important to monitor their wellbeing.

Family customs for example, parents’ education objective for the child may also affect the

youths’ wellbeing. Increased family social capital dictates positive developmental outcomes such

as reduced instances of behavioral challenges that trigger depression (Koller and Mathieson,

2008). Family plays an intermediate role of conveying parental capitals and norms to youths

through relations.

To conclude, youths are susceptible to mental health disorders. Parents and the

community need to apparent knowledge to understand the factors that contribute youth

depression. Youths also should take the role of signing up to various disciplines such as

community psychology, public health, and social work to understand how to prevent and

mitigate the stressors that trigger depression. Youths should be encouraged to learn and practice

good morals for their well-being. The prominent upshot of social capital on youth depressive

disorder should also develop diverse intervention programs to strengthen social capital within

both family and youth as well as community and youth, which is most likely to monitor and

control the depressive symptoms of youths. Community programs could also help to draw a
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collective attention to build institutions and provide opportunities that provide an impetus for

social capital development.

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References

Awgu, E., Magura, S., & Coryn, C. (2016). Social capital, substance use disorder and depression

among youths. The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, 42(2), 213–221. doi:

10.3109/00952990.2015.1111900

Koller, T., & Mathieson, A. (2008). Social cohesion for mental well-being among adolescents:

Who/Hbsc Forum 2007. Copenhagen: WHO Regional Office for Europe.