Chapter 6 Health, Social Capital and Neighbourhood
6.5 Social Capital, Neighbourhood and Mental Health Status
6.5.2 Social Capital and Mental Health
In this section we consider five components of social capital: participation in group activities, satisfaction with social life, norms of reciprocity, levels of trust in people in Australia, and availability of help for personal problems.
Participation in group activities
Figure 6.21 shows the locational differences in mental health status of respondents by whether they participated in any type of groups or organisations in the past year. Overall people taking part in group activities reported better mental health.
Among respondents who joined group activities significant differences existed between Burnside and each of the other three areas. For respondents who did not join group activities, significant differences existed between Playford and Onkaparinga, and between Prospect and Onkaparinga.
Figure 6.21 Mental health status by postcode by group participation
40 50 60
Yes No
Mean Score
Burnside (5066) Prospect (5082) Playford (5113) Onkaparinga (5169)
People and Places|chapter 6: Health, Social Capital and Neighbourhood
The qualitative interviews suggested a very clearly perceived link between participation in activities and a positive effect on health and well-being.
“I think it is positive because you are with like minded people you are sharing an interest and everybody goes there because they want to be there and I find it a very positive thing and you are always going forward somehow you are always learning something but I see all of that as very positive.” [Margaret; 68 yo; single never married; retired; home owner; lives alone; Burnside]
“I really love art and for my own well-being I know it’s really good for me. That’s why…I did a mosaic course. It’s just for me it was just important to have things that were; doing more creative stuff. It’s nice meeting different people in a different context that’s really pleasant as well.” [Pearl 27 yo; married; lives with husband; renting privately; working full time; Prospect]
Satisfaction with social life
The survey asked respondents whether they were satisfied with their social life, including face-to-face, email or phone contacts with their relatives and friends.
Figure 6.22 shows the locational differences in mental health status of respondents by whether or not they were satisfied with their social life. Across all four postcodes respondents who were satisfied with social life reported significantly higher mean mental health scores than those who were not. For those satisfied with their social life, the only significant difference in mental health status existed between Burnside and Playford. However, for those not satisfied with their social life, the differences between Prospect and Burnside and between Prospect and Onkaparinga became significant. This difference clearly suggests an association between social life and mental health but the direction of causality is not clear from these data.
Figure 6.22 Mental health status by postcode by satisfaction with social life
40 50 60
Satisfied Not satisfied
Mean Score
Burnside (5066) Prospect (5082) Playford (5113) Onkaparinga (5169)
People and Places|chapter 6: Health, Social Capital and Neighbourhood
The qualitative interviews illustrate the ways in which participants associate having friends with positive health and well-being.
“When I had [Ben] he is 4, I always felt very isolated because I found there wasn’t any baby stuff going on around here and you tend to stay home with a baby because you are setting a routine but I felt incredibly isolated and very down because you don’t have that social contact. It wasn’t really until he got to the kindy age when you start to meet people and stop feeling so isolated so I think that adult/adult contact is really important for mental health.” [Jennifer; 40 yo;
married; lives with husband and three kids; home owner; home duties; Onkaparinga]
“I don’t think I could have withstood the last few years if I hadn’t had this tremendous back up of many, many groups.” [Melanie; 72 yo; widowed; home owner; lives alone; retired; Burnside]
“Oh, well if you’ve got a good social life it saves your brain physically. You know it really does, it makes a big difference to a person keeping their neurological functions working well.” [Michelle;
33 yo; married; lives with husband and children; home owner; self employed; works full time; Prospect]
“I think because sometimes you actually keep going because of your friends, when I was sick I had phone calls, I had people coming round, people sending me cards, is there anything we can do…. I have to be strong for other people and when I am not particularly strong, well other people help me to get back there.” [Jo; 67 yo; divorced; lives alone; public housing; UK migrant;
Playford]
Norm of reciprocity
Respondents’ sense of reciprocity was gauged by asking them how strongly they agreed with the statement “By helping others you help yourself in the long run”.
The answers were divided into two groups: those who agreed with the statement, including “strongly agree” and “moderately agree”; and those who did not agree, including “neutral”, “moderately disagree”, and “strongly disagree”. Figure 6.23 shows the difference in mental health of respondents by postcode by answers to this question. The mental health scores for Burnside and Onkaparinga respondents were significantly higher than those of Prospect and Playford both for those who agreed with the norm of reciprocity and those who didn’t.
Figure 6.23 Mental health status by postcode by agreement with norm of reciprocity
40 50 60
Strongly/moderately agree Those who did not agree
Mean Score
Burnside (5066) Prospect (5082) Playford (5113) Onkaparinga (5169)
People and Places|chapter 6: Health, Social Capital and Neighbourhood
Levels of trust
The survey asked respondents how much they trusted people in Australia in general. The answers were given on a 7-point scale ranging from 1 “do not trust at all” to 7 “trust completely”. We grouped answers in 5, 6 and 7 as “higher levels of trust”, and all others as “lower levels of trust” and then examined the differences in mental health by postcode (Figure 6.24). Respondents with higher levels of trust had significantly higher mental health status than those with lower levels of trust.
Respondents in Burnside and Onkaparinga with higher levels of trust had significantly higher mental health scores than those in Prospect and Playford. There were significant differences for untrusting respondents between all postcodes except that between Playford and Onkaparinga.
Figure 6.24 Mental health status by postcode by levels of trust of people in Australia
40 50 60
Higher levels of trust Lower levels of trust
Mean Score
Burnside (5066) Prospect (5082)
Playford (5113) Onkaparinga (5169)
The following examples from the qualitative interviews demonstrated a strong belief in the link between trust and positive effects on health and well-being on the part of some respondents.
Interviewer: “What about trust? To what extent do you think that the idea of trust has an impact on your health? Either positive or negative?
Margaret: I think it must be very positive. If you didn’t trust individual people it would be horrid. It would be dreadful. Yes a very positive effect” [Margaret; 68 yo; single never married; retired; home owner; lives alone; Burnside]
“Trust amongst friends? A huge impact. With trust if you trust a friend, you can go to them and you can speak to them and you can actually talk about maybe some stuff that only you and that person you’re speaking to need to know. You wouldn’t feel well if you’ve trusted that friend who’s gone out and just blabbing it to everyone else. You wouldn’t feel happy about it. So that’s part of health.” [Gordon; 42 yo; single, never married; lives alone; home owner; works full time; Onkaparinga]
People and Places |chapter 6: Health, Social Capital and Neighbourhood
“I think trust has a lot to do with how your body reacts and how healthy you feel. Without mentioning any names and things like that, if you’re married and you have an affair, have a look at someone’s health? The person who is having an affair. Just have a look at what internally happens to them and they are not healthy. I mean I’ve got a mate who has done that and he went from 80 kgs to 70 kgs in a matter of a couple of months and he looked sick. Just carrying that guilt. That guilt is he’s broken trust and guilt trust, he’s broken the trust of his relationship with his wife and internally he is suffering badly. But that’s all inflicted on by himself. He chose five minutes of pleasure for two, ten years of guilt. It’s his choice. So trust yeah has got a lot internally to do with your health. How you view yourself, how you view everyone else in your relationship.” [Marcus, 45 yo; married; lives with wife and children; home owner; works full time; Burnside]
Interviewer: What about something like trust? To what extent do you think that might have an impact on your health?
Pearl: “I think it’s important. Last year when I did have the bad health I had to say look I’m not really coping very well and it’s amazing how vulnerable that makes you feel but it also frees you at the same time. It seems weird and that’s I think also with the people that are living here I’ve been trying to get over that thing of no, no you can’t trust anyone any more, being suspicious of everyone and being friendly probably more so than what I would’ve been in the past but then also feeling better about the actual community that we live in. It’s weird, it makes you vulnerable but it makes you free.” [Pearl; 27 yo; married; lives with husband; renting privately; working full time, Prospect]
Availability of help for personal problems
The survey asked a number of questions about the help and assistance available to respondents in need. We chose one question about the number of people available to talk to about personal problems and help in making important decisions. Figure 6.25 shows the differences in mental health of respondents by postcode by the number of people available to help in this way. Except in Playford which had 50 respondents reporting no-one available for help, each of the other three postcodes had around 20 people without anyone available for help. There were no significant locational differences in mental health for these people. For respondents with people available for help, the more people available, the higher their mental health status. There were significant differences between Burnside and Playford for respondents with 1 or 2 people available for help, and between Burnside and Prospect with 3 or more people available to help.
People and Places |chapter 6: Health, Social Capital and Neighbourhood
Figure 6.25 Mental health status by postcode by people to talk to about personal problems
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
None 1 to 2 3 or more
Mean Score
Burnside (5066) Prospect (5082) Playford (5113) Onkaparinga (5169)
Once again, the qualitative interviews support this connection between social support and positive health and well-being.
Interviewer: What about social support – there are people that you can rely on or who can rely on you?
Margaret: It is just nice to know it is there isn’t it. But that is reciprocal with your particular friends…because again it makes you feel good mentally and if you feel good mentally the rest of you is going to fall into line. Mostly I mean sometimes the bottom of your spine gives you a bit of trouble but that can fix itself.” [Margaret 68 yo; single never married; retired; home owner; lives alone;
Burnside]
Interviewer: We have touched on this already but to what extent does social support have an impact on your health?
Jennifer: I think that, you know, social support from my girlfriends and that is pretty big. I have a very, very, very heavy weekend with my 14 year old daughter and her girlfriends. Things that I never expected to happen on the weekend and I found myself ringing my girlfriends. You know, almost hourly saying
‘How am I going to get through this’ and that was really good. Those girlfriends of mine became pretty important on the weekend…So it is pretty important I think that network” [Jennifer 40 yo; married; lives with husband and three kids; home owner; home duties; Onkaparinga]
“I think everybody needs to have someone who listens to them and everybody needs to feel that they are accepted for themselves and in this neighbourhood there seems to be an acceptance. There is a fish and chip shop just around the corner and the couple that run that came from Lebanon, they both, he was a tailor, she was a high school economics teacher and they run a wonderfully, they listen to the people, and so many people go there who are having problems and you know she will take them into her little spot next door and give them a cup of coffee and just listen to them and I think, you know.” [Simone; 61 yo; married; lives with husband; home owner; works part time; Prospect]
People and Places|chapter 6: Health, Social Capital and Neighbourhood