Social Capital Changes After COVID-19 Lockdown Among Youths in China: COVID-19 Impact on Lifestyle Change Survey (COINLICS)

Frontiers in Public Health

Miyang Luo²  Shujuan Yang²  Peng Jia²  Meijing Liu³  Junmin Zhou³  Bin Yu⁴ 

[1] Institute for Disaster Management and Reconstruction, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China;International Institute of Spatial Lifecourse Epidemiology (ISLE), Hong Kong, China;West China School of Public Health and West China Fourth Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China;West China Second University Hospital of Sichuan University and Key Laboratory of Birth Defects and Related Diseases of Women and Children (Sichuan University), Ministry of Education, Chengdu, China;Xiangya School of Public Health, Central South University, Changsha, China;

关键词: COVID-19;    social capital;    mental health;    youths;    lockdown;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpubh.2021.697068

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Introduction: Social capital, the effective functioning of social groups through networks of relationships, can affect mental health and may be affected by COVID-19. We aimed to examine the changes in social capital before and after the COVID-19 lockdown among the Chinese youth.Methods: A national convenience sample of 10,540 high school, undergraduate, and graduate students, from the COVID-19 Impact on Lifestyle Change Survey (COINLICS), reported their demographic and social capital information before and after the COVID-19 lockdown. Social capital was retrospectively measured at four levels: individual (ISC), family (FSC), community (CSC), and society (SSC). The changes of social capital were also compared across three educational levels.Results: Overall, ISC and CSC scores generally decreased after lockdown (15.1 to 14.8 and 13.4 to 13.1, respectively), while FSC and SSC scores increased significantly (12.7 to 13.0 and 7.1 to 7.2, respectively). At the individual level, most participants showed a constant perceived social capital; more of the remaining participants showed decreased than increased ISC (30.5% vs. 17.0%) and CSC scores (28.4% vs. 19.1%), while more participants showed increased than decreased FSC (21.7% vs. 9.2%) and SSC scores (10.3% vs. 3.9%). Heterogeneities in social capital changes existed across educational levels.Conclusions: Our findings would provide health professionals and policy-makers solid evidence on the changes in social capital of youths after lockdowns, and therefore help the design of future interventions to rebuild or improve their social capital after epidemics/disasters.

【 授权许可】

Unknown