| Abstract |
Social capital is one of the recent additions to the list of a number of social dimensions that affect environmental indicators and health behaviours (Wakefield & Poland 2005, Kritsotakis & Gamarnikow 2004). However, while the literature highlights the influence that social capital seems to have on the health and wellbeing of young people, mechanisms and linkages that underlie this effect is still unclear.
Aims
The aim of this thesis was to investigate the relationship of social capital with health behaviours of high school students in the prefecture of Heraklion, Crete, Greece and contribute to the understanding of the mechanisms by which social capital promotes health from the perspective of Community Social Work.
More specifically, the thesis aims to report on (1) the psychometric validation of the youth social capital scale and subscales in Greece, (2) the role the gender of the participants has when studying the influence of social capital in the frequent and heavy alcohol consumption (3) the influence of social and economic capital in the daily consumption of tobacco and other students health determinants (4) the role that social capital has in promoting health through interventions in community social work.
Δημόσια Υγεία & Διοίκηση Υπηρεσιών Υγείας
Τμήμα Ιατρικής – Πανεπιστήμιο Κρήτης
16
Methodology
The methodological approach was cross-sectional. The sampling method was stratified random sampling. The sampling frame was the list of all the Secondary Educational schools (28 units) in Prefecture of Heraklion. The population was estimated at 2,854 students. Those were studying in 9 rural schools with 268 students, 18 urban schools with 1,921 students and 14 suburban schools with 665 students.
The data collection was carried out in 2008 in two phases. The first phase was the pilot implementation of a scale (Youth Social Capital Scale) in order to ensure the validity and reliability of the measurements (Koutra et al., 2012a). A school unit was randomly selected (code 1753010) in which all segments were repetitively measured over a week to ensure the reliability of the questionnaire (test-retest reliability) (Erevnidou, Launois, Katsamouris, & Lionis, 2004).
After the necessary enhancements that resulted in the final version of the Youth Social Capital Scale (YSCS) data were collected from the rural and urban population. In relation to the rural stratum, due to the relative small number of students all the students were included (268 students), while in the urban strata four schools (409 students) were randomly selected.
Assessment tools
Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire compiled from the Youth Social Capital Scale (YSCS) (Onyx et al., 2005) and the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) questionnaire developed by an international research network in collaboration with W.H.O., with participation of Greece since 1997 (E.P.I.PS.Y 2006). Permission for the use of both questionnaires was provided. The Pedagogical Institute of the Ministry of Education also provided permission for data collection (Case: 20946/G2/20-2-2008).
Results
Psychometric Validation
Δημόσια Υγεία & Διοίκηση Υπηρεσιών Υγείας
Τμήμα Ιατρικής – Πανεπιστήμιο Κρήτης
17
The validation of the scale included both internal consistency and construct, convergent and discriminant validity tests. Exploratory factor analysis yielded five social capital factors. The overall Cronbach’s coefficient was .771. Factor analysis revealed a common patterns for many questions between the Greek and the original scales (Koutra et al. 2012a).
Alcohol consumption
For both boys and girls, higher score on some structural social capital subscales was associated, per unit increase, with increased likelihood of regular drinking. Neighbourhood connections were also associated with increased binge drinking in girls. Cognitive social capital subscales were associated with decreased likelihood of binge drinking in girls. For both genders, total social capital-score was positively associated with the probability of regular, but not of binge drinking.
Smoking consumption
Results for the multiple logistic analyses indicated that both low structural and cognitive social capital, and low economic perceived affluence, were significantly associated with poor health outcomes and increased smoking habits.
Health promotion, Social capital, Community social work
This article discusses about social capital, health promotion and community social work and highlights the common features, methodology and approach shared through community development so that social workers may be better equipped to improve and further develop the practice of their profession in the community. Professional social workers and their educators need to acknowledge the benefits and the advantages of working with the strategy of community development, thereby contributing to healthy communities capable of rebuilding and producing social capital.
Conclusions
Social capital is an important social determinant of students’ health and well-being. The results of this study demonstrated that cognitive and structural social capital has different associations with the regular and binge drinking in boys and girls. Similarly, the
Δημόσια Υγεία & Διοίκηση Υπηρεσιών Υγείας
Τμήμα Ιατρικής – Πανεπιστήμιο Κρήτης
18
low structural social capital was related protectively to the daily tobacco consumption while cognitive social capital, did not.
Mechanisms of improving the students’ social capital require careful and detailed analysis as dimensions and factors have both positive and negative effects on health
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Κοινωνικό κεφάλαιο και συμπεριφορές υγείας σε μαθητές της Α Λυκείου της Δευτεροβάθμιας Εκπαίδευσης του Ν. Ηρακλείου : Ο παρεμβατικός ρόλος της κοινωνικής εργασίας με κοινότητα
