the relationship between social capital and depression during the transition to adulthood

The relationship between social capital and depression during thetransition to adulthoodajpy_4 26..35

Meredith O’Connor,1 Mary T. Hawkins,1 John W. Toumbourou,2 Ann Sanson,1 Primrose Letcher,1 andCraig A. Olsson3

1Department of Paediatrics, The University of Melbourne, 2School of Psychology, Deakin University, Melbourne, and3Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, Royal Children’s Hospital, and the University of Melbourne (PsychologicalSciences & Paediatrics), Parkville, Victoria, Australia

Abstract

Relatively high levels of depression are observed during the transition to adulthood. Hence, it is important to identify the factorsthat can reduce the incidence of depression at this time. Social capital is theorised to protect against depression by providinggreater access to support and psychological resources. Social capital incorporates both interpersonal relationships and broadercommunity-level factors. However, most research has focused on the influence of relationships with parents and peers in thedevelopment of depression in young people, with little attention given to the role of broader social capital factors relating toperceptions of and engagement with the wider community. Drawing on longitudinal data from the Australian TemperamentProject (ATP), this article examines the effects of close interpersonal relationships (with parents and peers) and broader,community-level aspects of social capital (trust and civic engagement) on depression during the transition to adulthood. Usinghierarchical multiple regression, alienation from peers was found to predict higher depression, whereas good communication withpeers was associated with a reduction of depressive symptoms. After controlling for the effects of close interpersonal relationships,trust in authorities and organisations made a significant contribution to the prediction of lower depression. Implications forintervention are discussed.

Key words: civic engagement, depression, emerging adulthood, political trust, social capital, social trust

Depression over the transition to adulthood is relatively

common, with a 1-month prevalence of around 20%

(Smart & Sanson, 2005), and a range of biological and

social risk factors have been identified (Badcock et al.,

2011; van Eekelen et al., 2011; Garber, 2006). Depression

is associated with impaired functioning across multiple

domains, including interpersonal relationships (Tanner

et al., 2007), work productivity, and educational outcomes

(Wittchen, Nelson, & Lachner, 1998), romantic involve-

ment and life satisfaction (Paradis, Reinherz, Giaconia, &

Fitzmaurice, 2006), and self-esteem (Reinherz, Giaconia,

Carmola Hauf, Wasserman, & Silverman, 1999). These

deficits occur at a time when young people are making

significant decisions about their educational, occupational,

and romantic lives which have lasting implications as they

move into adulthood (Arnett, 2000). Hence, it is important

to identify factors that reduce the incidence of depression

during this time.

Social capital may be one such protective factor. In general

terms, social capital refers to the networks of social ties

between individuals in a community (Portes, 1998; Putnam,

1995a). These ties are assumed to provide benefits at both the

individual and collective levels when the relationships that

make up these networks are reciprocal, trusting, and involve

positive emotions (Paxton, 1999). Generalised trust of others

in the community, and trust in institutions and organisations

are important aspects of social capital (Paxton, 1999; Putnam,

1995b). Civic engagement is also considered central to social

capital, and is often operationalised as involvement in volun-

tary organisations and volunteer work, both of which facili-

tate the development of social networks (Jennings & Stoker,

2004). Social capital can be conceptualised and measured at

both an individual and a group level (Brehm & Rahn, 1997),

with psychological research tending to focus on the former

and sociological research focusing on aggregate social capital.

Social capital incorporates both close interpersonal relation-

ships, or ‘proximal’ factors, as well as connections with the

broader community, or ‘distal’ factors (Bassani, 2007). It is

thought to reduce the incidence of depression through a

Correspondence: Meredith O’Connor, Dr, Department of Paediat-rics, The University of Melbourne, Royal Children’s Hospital, Flem-ington Road, Parkville, VIC 3052, Australia. Email: [email protected]

Received 2 June 2010. Accepted for publication 16 July 2010.© 2011 The Australian Psychological Society

Australian Journal of Psychology 2011; 63: 26–35doi:10.1111/j.1742-9536.2011.00004.x

number of pathways; for example, by increasing individuals’

exposure to positive emotional support, enhancing psycho-

logical resources such as self esteem, and buffering the nega-

tive effects of stressful life events (Phongsavan, Chey,

Bauman, Brooks, & Silove, 2006).

Investigations into the relationship between social capital

and depression over adolescence and the transition to adult-

hood have generally focused on the role of proximal rela-

tionships with peers and family members, with strong

empirical support found for the importance of these relation-

ships (for a review, see Campas, Hinden, & Gerhardt, 1995).

For example, Costello, Swendsen, Rose, and Dierker (2008)

recently examined trajectories of depression over adoles-

cence and early adulthood in a large US sample, and found

that strong connections with parents and peers predicted

membership in a non-depressed trajectory group.

In contrast, much less attention has been given to distal

aspects of social capital, such as social trust (or generalised

trust of others in the community), trust in institutions, and

civic engagement (Almedom, 2005; De Silva, McKenzie,

Harpham, & Huttly, 2005). Yet these aspects of social capital,

which relate to perceptions of and connections to the

broader community, are also likely to be important for

depression. For example, Erikson (1965) argued that under-

standing one’s roles and connections to the broader commu-

nity is important for healthy psychosocial development.

Furthermore, distal aspects of social capital are relatively

malleable (Jennings & Stoker, 2004) and hence represent

good targets for intervention. Broadly speaking, distal social

capital factors can be promoted through structural social

resources (i.e., characteristics of group members), and func-

tional social resources (i.e., the qualities of social interactions

within groups) (Bassani, 2007).

Of these distal aspects of social capital, civic engagement

has received the most attention as a potential protective

factor for depression. It has been suggested that civic engage-

ment, most often operationalised behaviourally as participa-

tion in extracurricular activities such as volunteering or

sports clubs and examined in adolescence, contributes to

healthy psychosocial functioning by providing young people

with the opportunity to build interpersonal competence,

feelings, of belonging, and strong relationships with their

school and peers (Mahoney, Cairns, & Farmer, 2003). Some

empirical support for this hypothesis has been found. For

example, Fredricks and Eccles (2006) found that, controlling

for achievement motivation levels, participation in sports

groups in year 11 concurrently predicted lower depression

and internalising problems, although involvement in school

clubs or prosocial activities did not.

However, some cross-sectional studies suggest that partici-

pation in groups may be related to higher depression. Using

cluster analysis, Zarrett et al. (2009) drew on data from the

4-H study when participants were in grades 5 through 7 and

identified six clusters with different patterns of group par-

ticipation. The clusters of highly engaged youths, and youths

who were involved in performing arts but not in sporting

activities, had the highest levels of depression. The authors

suggested that the effect for the highly engaged youths may

reflect the negative consequences of ‘overscheduling’, such

as time management issues and parental pressure. In con-

trast, engagement in sports and religious activities, and in

sports only, predicted significantly lower levels of depression,

consistent with Fredricks and Eccles’ (2006) findings. Others

have found no relationship between depression and civic

engagement. For example, Pancer, Pratt, and Hunsberger

(2007) also used cluster analysis with a Canadian sample of

students in their final year of high school and identified four

groups: activists (who had wide ranging involvement in

political and community activities), helpers (who were

involved in helping individuals from their communities but

not in political activities), responders (who responded to but

did not initiate helping or political activities), and unin-

volved adolescents. The four groups did not significantly

differ in their levels of depression. Hence, the role of civic

engagement in the course of depression remains unclear.

There are also some indications that subjective experi-

ences of social trust may be related to lower depression.

Sucoff and Aneshensel (1996) drew on a US sample of ado-

lescents (12–17 years), and examined two aspects of subjec-

tive social capital, including perceptions of ‘ambient hazards’

(e.g., violent crimes, drive-by shootings), which might be

taken as the negative pole of social trust, and social cohesion

(e.g., perceiving people in the neighbourhood as friendly).

The sample was confined to Los Angeles County, where

neighbourhoods were highly stratified by socioeconomic

status and ethnicity. They found that, controlling for actual

neighbourhood characteristics, perceptions of ambient

hazards concurrently predicted higher depression, and per-

ceptions of social cohesion in the community predicted

lower depression.

In a study of the relationship between social trust and

depression in adulthood, Fujiwara and Kawachi (2008) drew

on data from a US twin sample of adults aged 25–75, and

found that higher levels of perceived social capital (including

social trust and sense of belonging) were related to a reduced

risk of developing depression during a 2–3-year assessment

interval (using participants’ retrospective reports of depres-

sive symptoms over this period). In contrast, behavioural

aspects of social capital, including volunteer work, were not

associated with depression over this period. Veenstra’s

(2005) Canadian study found similar results, with trust in

community members and political trust predicting lower

levels of depressive symptoms in adults, whereas volunteer-

ing did not.

A number of large cross-sectional studies have examined

the relationship of trust to general psychopathology rather

Social capital and depression 27

© 2011 The Australian Psychological Society

than specifically focusing on depression. McCullock (2001)

found that high perceived social capital (measured by items

relating to the participant’s neighbourhood) was related to

lower psychiatric morbidity for British adults. Ellaway,

Macintyre, and Kearns (2001), in a Scottish study, found

that perceived social cohesion in the neighbourhood was

positively related to mental health. Phongsavan et al. (2006)

sampled participants aged 16 and over (age range not

reported) living in Australia, and assessed community par-

ticipation, feelings of trust and safety, and neighbourhood

connections and reciprocity, and their relationships with

psychological distress. After controlling for demographic and

health related factors, lower trust, fewer neighbourhood

connections, and lower reciprocity predicted membership in

the high distress group. Moreover, in a large Swedish study

of adults aged 18–80, low social trust was found to predict

poorer psychological health even when social participation

was high (Lindstrom, 2004). However, the focus on general

psychopathology in these studies limits the inferences that

can be drawn in relation to depression.

THE CURRENT STUDY

The Australian Temperament Project (ATP) is a large-scale

longitudinal community-based study, which has followed

the development of a cohort of Australian children from

infancy to early adulthood. The current study draws on data

from the ATP to examine the effects of proximal and distal

aspects of social capital on depression during the transition

to adulthood. Proximal social capital factors are operationa-

lised as attachment to peers and parents, and distal social

capital are operationalised as social trust and tolerance of

diversity, trust in authorities and organisations, and civic

action and engagement.

We employ a hierarchical design whereby the unique

effects of distal social capital can be examined, controlling

for their shared variance with proximal social capital

factors. Whereas previous research has typically employed

ad hoc measures of distal social capital developed by ‘ret-

rofitting’ the social capital concept to items available in

large questionnaire studies (Almedom, 2005), we employ

well-validated and empirically tested measures. Further-

more, the current study specifically addresses depression,

rather than general psychological distress, thus aiding

interpretability of the findings and refining possible impli-

cations for intervention.

Based on the tenets of social capital theory, we hypoth-

esise that, as in previous literature, strong relationships with

parents and peers in adolescence will significantly reduce

depression in early adulthood. Furthermore, we hypothesise

that the distal social capital factors of trust in authorities and

organisations, as well as general trust of others in the com-

munity and tolerance of diversity, will also make a unique

contribution to reduced risk for depression. The analysis will

also seek to clarify the role of civic engagement as an aspect

of distal social capital, with an expectation of it having a

protective role on depression. We further hypothesise that

social capital will be particularly important for individuals

who experienced high levels of depressive symptoms in ado-

lescence and thus were at an increased risk for depression

during the transition to adulthood.

METHOD

Participants and procedure

Participants were young people enrolled in the ATP, a lon-

gitudinal study following the psychosocial development of a

community sample from infancy to adulthood. A represen-

tative sample of 2,443 infants was recruited through selected

Maternal and Child Health Centres across both urban and

rural areas in Victoria during a specified 2-week period in

1983. Using a mail survey methodology, 14 waves of data

have been collected over the past 25 years from parents,

primary school teachers, maternal and child health nurses,

and from the age of 11 onwards, the young people them-

selves (for further information, see Prior, Sanson, Smart, &

Oberklaid, 2000).

The current sample consisted of the 991 participants,

including 384 males and 607 females, who participated in

the 2006 wave and thus had data on depression at 23–24

years. Questionnaire booklets were mailed to participants,

together with reply-paid, addressed envelopes in which to

return them. One round of postal reminders was under-

taken, and was followed by a second mail-out of question-

naires to non-respondents. Finally, a round of telephone

reminders was undertaken. Missing data on antecedent vari-

ables ranged from 0% to 11.3%, with an average of 8.55%,

and was estimated using the Expectation Maximisation algo-

rithm (Enders, 2006).

Approximately two-thirds of the cohort is still enrolled in

the study after 23 years. Table 1 shows characteristics of the

retained sample at the 14th data collection wave as compared

with the original sample upon recruitment, and demonstrates

that proportionately more families from a lower socioeco-

nomic status (SES)-background, and families with parents

who were not born in Australia, have been lost to the study.

Statistical comparisons of the retained and non-retained sub-

samples confirmed these sociodemographic differences and

also indicated that the retained subgroup of children was

significantly ‘easier’ in temperament style in infancy than

non-retained subgroup (t(2441) = -2.63, p = .01), although

this difference was very small in magnitude (retained sub-

group M = 1.71, SD = 0.68; non-retained subgroup M = 1.75,

SD = 0.71). However, there were no significant differences

28 M. O’Connor et al.


between the retained and non-retained subgroups on behav-

ioural problems during infancy (t(2432) = -1.25, p = .21, ns).

The sample continues to include young adults with a broad

range of attributes and from diverse circumstances, although

it contains fewer families experiencing socioeconomic disad-

vantage than at the commencement of the study and hence is

likely to slightly underestimate the effect of family socio-

economic disadvantage.

Materials

Depression was measured at 13–14 and 15–16 years using the

Short Mood and Feelings Questionnaire (Angold et al.,

1995), which includes 12 items (e.g. ‘I don’t enjoy anything

at all) rated on a 3-point scale from ‘rarely or never’ to ‘very

often’. Internal reliability was high at both 13–14 (a = 0.80)

and 15–16 years (a = 0.85), and depression was highly cor-

related across these two time points r = 0.61 (p < .001).

Hence, in order to provide a more robust measure tapping

persistent problems with depression, a composite score was

created from self-reported depression at 13–14 and 15–16

years by standardising and averaging the two scores. Depres-

sion during the transition to adulthood (at 23–24 years) was

measured with the depression subscale of the Depression

Anxiety Stress Scales (Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995). This

measure included seven items relating to depressive symp-

toms, such as ‘I couldn’t seem to experience any positive

feelings’ (a = 0.90). Items were rated on a 4-point scale

ranging from ‘did not apply’ to ‘applied very much/most of

the time’ over the past month.

Proximal social capital at 17–18 years was assessed via self-

report measures of relationships with parents and peers using

subscales of the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment

(Armsden & Greenberg, 1987). Aspects of the parent–

adolescent relationship measured were: trust (eight items,

e.g., ‘Considers my point of view when we discuss things’;

a = 0.86), communication (seven items, e.g., ‘Senses when

I’m upset about something’; a = 0.89), and alienation (four

items, e.g., ‘Doesn’t understand me’; a = 0.75). Parallel mea-

sures of peer relationships were used, including: trust (four

items, e.g., ‘My friends accept me as I am’; a = 0.84), com-

munication (four items, e.g., ‘My friends sense when I’m

upset about something’; a = 0.70), and alienation (four

items, e.g., ‘My friends don’t understand what I’m going

through these days’; a = 0.64). Ratings were made on a

4-point scale from ‘always/almost always’ to ‘never/almost

never’.

Distal social capital factors were assessed by three measures

developed by Hawkins, Letcher, Sanson, Smart, and Toum-

bourou (2009) using AMOS 7.0 SEM confirmatory factor

analysis (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL; Arbuckle & Wothke, 2006)

as part of a larger model of positive adaptation. These three

measures included trust and tolerance of others, trust in

authorities and organisations, and civic action and engage-

ment, all assessed by self-report at 19–20 years. The mea-

surement models of each of these constructs fit the data

very well, and all indicators contributed meaningfully to

their respective latent constructs. The overall model pro-

vided a very good fit for the data (RMSEA = 0.05,

CFI = 0.94). Using model-based imputation in AMOS on

the final model, latent factor scores were computed for each

of the first-order constructs (including trust and tolerance

of others, trust in authorities and organisations, and civic

action and engagement). The components of these scores

are described below.

Three items derived from Stone and Hughes (2002) relat-

ing to trust in people in the neighbourhood, trust in Austra-

lians, and tolerance of different ethnic groups were used to

assess trust and tolerance of others. These were ‘Most people in

your neighbourhood can be trusted’, ‘Having people from

different ethnic and cultural backgrounds makes Australia a

better place’, and ‘Thinking about Australia, most people can

be trusted’. These three items were rated on a 5-point scale

from ‘disagree completely’ to ‘agree completely’.

Trust in authorities and organisations was measured by items

derived from Flanagan and Longmire (1995) and Stone and

Hughes (2002) tapping participants’ confidence in police

(five items, a = 0.83, e.g., ‘How much confidence do you

have in the police to treat everyone fairly’ rated on a scale

where 1 = a great deal, 2 = some, 3 = little, and 4 = none at

all), confidence in the courts (five items, a = 0.87, e.g., ‘How

much confidence do you have in the ability of the courts to

impose fair sentences’ rated on a scale where 1 = a great

deal, 2 = some, 3 = little, and 4 = none at all), and trust in

organisations (eight items, a = 0.83, e.g., ‘the media’ rated

according to how confident the participant is that the organi-

sation can be relied on to act in a fair or reasonable manner,

Table 1 Comparison of retained sample and original cohort oncharacteristics at recruitment in 1983

Domain Original cohort Retained 2006

SES Quartile in 1983Highest 26.7% 32.1%Medium-high 29.2% 30.3%Medium-low 24.4% 23.5%Lowest 19.8% 14.2%

Mother’s country of birthAustralian 79.9% 83.9%UK 6.0% 5.6%Other 14.1% 10.6%

Father’s country of birthAustralian 73.3% 77.1%UK 7.3% 6.9%Other 19.4% 16.0%

Infant behaviour problems Mean 1.73 (SD 0.69) 1.71 (SD 0.68)Infant easy-difficult

temperament factorMean 2.46 (SD 0.63) 2.43 (SD 0.63)



with ratings made on a scale from 1 = not at all confident to

4 = very confident).

Civic action and engagement was measured by items derived

from Stone (2001) and Stone and Hughes (2002) tapping

participation in community activities, participation in

groups, and donations to groups, over the past year. Partici-

pation in community activities was measured according to

10 items asking participants to indicate how often they had

participated in certain activities over the past year. For

example, ‘In the past 12 months have you attended a public

meeting’ rated on a scale where 1 = not at all, 2 = 1–2 times,

3 = 3–4 times, and 4 = five times or more (a = 0.58). Partici-

pation in groups was measured according to nine items

asking participants to indicate whether they ‘participated,

attended events or meetings’ for nine groups such as ‘sport-

ing, recreation, or hobby groups’ and ‘self-help or support

group’ (rated according to yes or no response and scaled to

indicate ‘yes’; a = 0.65). Donations to groups were measured

according to whether participants ‘donated money, time,

etc.’ to the same nine community groups (rated according to

yes or no response and scaled to indicate ‘yes’; a = 0.60).

RESULTS

Descriptive statistics and intercorrelations between variables

examined in the study are presented in Table 2. Correlations

were generally small to moderate, with the strongest asso-

ciations observed between depression at the two time points,

and variables within the domains of relationships with peers,

relationships with parents, and distal social capital factors.

A hierarchical multiple regression analysis was performed

with depression at 23–24 years as the dependent variable.

Gender and adolescent depression were entered in the first

step to control for their effects, as both have been associated

with early adult depression in previous research (Piccinelli &

Wilkinson, 2000; Simons, Rohde, Kennard, & Robins, 2005).

Given its relationship to social capital (Lin, 1982), family

socioeconomic status was also initially included as a control

but had no significant effects, and hence was removed from

the model. Proximal social capital variables (i.e., parent and

peer relationships) were entered in the second step, and

distal social capital variables (trust and tolerance of others,

trust in authorities and organisations, and civic action and

engagement) were entered in the third step. The fourth step

contained interaction terms reflecting peer and parent rela-

tionship predictors by adolescent depression. The fifth, final

step included interaction terms between adolescent depres-

sion and broader social capital factors. All variables were

centred prior to the analysis in order to reduce multicol-

linearity and aid interpretation of interaction effects

(Tabachnick & Fidell, 2001).

The final model (see Table 3) accounted for a significant

16.90% of the variance in depression at 23–24 years (F(20,

970) = 9.85, p < .001). In the first step, female gender and

adolescent depression emerged as significant antecedents of

depression in early adulthood, explaining 12% of the vari-

ance (Fchange(2,988) = 65.01, p < .001). Adolescent depres-

sion remained a significant predictor in each of the

subsequent steps. Close relationship variables were entered

in the second step and contributed an additional 3% to the

variance accounted for (Fchange(6,982) = 5.01, p < .001). Peer

alienation emerged as a significant antecedent of higher

levels of depression in early adulthood and remained signifi-

cant in subsequent steps. The distal social capital factors

entered in the third step contributed a modest but significant

1% to the proportion of variance accounted for (Fchange

(3, 979) = 4.93, p = .002); trust in authorities and organisa-

tions emerged as a significant predictor, with higher levels

of trust predicting lower depression, and this remained

Table 2 Descriptive statistics and intercorrelations between depression and social capital variables

Variable 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

1. Early adulthood depression – 0.33** -0.17** -0.15** 0.25** -0.16** -0.18** 0.21** -0.16** -0.20** -0.022. Adolescent depression – -0.24** -0.06 0.39** -0.22** -0.30** 0.36** -0.17** -0.22** 0.003. Peer trust – 0.41** -0.45** 0.15** 0.20** -0.15** 0.15** 0.16** 0.044. Peer communication – -0.35** 0.29** 0.13** -0.07* 0.13** 0.14** 0.065. Peer alienation – -0.18** -0.22** 0.39** -0.05 -0.13** 0.026. Warmth/communication with mother – 0.70** -0.58** 0.17** 0.20** 0.11**7. Trust with mother – -0.61** 0.17** 0.22** 0.058. Alienation from mother – -0.08* -0.18** 0.029. Trust and tolerance of others – 0.49** 0.30**

10. Trust in authorities and organisations – 0.14**11. Civic action and engagement –

Mean 0.47 0.00 3.03 2.94 1.79 2.97 3.35 2.10 0.02 0.01 0.02Standard deviation 0.53 0.91 0.28 0.64 0.49 0.61 0.44 0.56 0.34 0.23 0.40Minimum 0 -1.34 1.75 1 1 1 1 1 -1.29 -0.83 -0.58Maximum 3 3.49 4 4 3.50 4 4 4 0.91 0.66 2.14

*p < .05, **p < .01.



significant in subsequent steps. In the fourth step, the inter-

actions between adolescent depression and peer and parent

relationship variables contributed a modest but significant

1% to the variance accounted for (Fchange(6,973) = 2.55,

p = .02). A significant interaction was observed between

adolescent depression and peer communication. When

interactions between adolescent depression and distal social

capital factors were entered in the fifth step, the change in

the proportion of variance accounted for was non-significant

(Fchange(3,970) = 0.18, p = .91, ns), and hence this step was

removed from the analysis.

The nature of the significant adolescent depression by peer

communication interaction was probed further. The results

were plotted using ModGraph (Jose, 2008) and are pre-

sented in Fig. 1. The simple slopes (see Table 4) were signifi-

cantly different from zero at low, medium, and high levels

of peer communication. As can be seen from Fig. 1, those

with high adolescent depression and low peer communica-

tion had the highest levels of adult depression, whereas at

low levels of adolescent depression, peer communication

appeared to have less effect on adult depression. Hence,

higher levels of peer communication appeared to have a

stronger protective effect for those who were higher in ado-

lescent depression.

DISCUSSION

The current study examined the protective effects of both

proximal and distal social capital factors on depression

during the transition to adulthood. Depression over adoles-

cence and early adulthood showed high continuity, with

depression in adolescence emerging as the strongest predic-

tor of later depression. As expected, relationships with peers

during adolescence were also relevant to later depression.

Independently of proximal social capital and experiences of

depression in adolescence, trust in authorities and organisa-

tions further predicted lower levels of depression. Hence,

aspects of both proximal and distal social capital were asso-

ciated with reduced depression during the transition to

adulthood.

Consistent with a large body of previous research

(Campas et al., 1995), peer relationships in adolescence

were significantly related to depressive symptoms during

the transition to adulthood. Those adolescents who were

alienated from their peers, or had experienced previous

depressive symptoms and had poor communication with

their peers, were particularly at risk for later depression.

The salience of peer relationships in adolescence as com-

pared to relationships with parents, which did not signifi-

cantly predict later depression in the current study, was also

evident and is consistent with previous findings, suggesting

that peer attachment during adolescence may be relatively

more influential for depression than parent attachment

(e.g., Laible, Carlo, & Raffaelli, 2000). The results further

demonstrate—again replicating a large body of research

(e.g. Simons et al., 2005)—the considerable risk posed by

experiences of adolescent depression for later depression

during the transition to adulthood.

Unique to the current study is the finding that

young people who were more trusting of authorities and

Table 3 Hierarchical linear regression predicting depression inearly adulthood from adolescent depression and social capital factors

Variable B SE B b

Step 1Gender -0.09 0.03 -0.08**Adolescent depression 0.21 0.02 0.35**

Step 2Gender -0.05 0.04 -0.05Adolescent depression 0.16 0.02 0.27**Peer trust -0.03 0.07 -0.01Peer communication -0.05 0.03 -0.06Peer alienation 0.11 0.04 0.10**Parent trust -0.05 0.05 -0.04Parent communication 0.01 0.04 0.01Parent alienation 0.05 0.04 0.05

Step 3Gender -0.02 0.04 -0.02Adolescent depression 0.14 0.02 0.24**Peer trust -0.01 0.07 -0.01Peer communication -0.05 0.03 -0.06Peer alienation 0.11 0.04 0.10**Parent trust -0.03 0.05 -0.02Parent communication 0.01 0.04 0.01Parent alienation 0.05 0.04 0.05Trust and tolerance of others -0.10 0.06 -0.06Trust in authorities and organisations -0.19 0.08 -0.08*Civic action and engagement 0.02 0.04 0.02

Step 4Gender -0.04 0.04 -0.03Adolescent depression 0.15 0.02 0.25**Peer trust 0.00 0.07 0.00Peer communication -0.05 0.03 -0.06Peer alienation 0.10 0.04 0.09*Parent trust -0.03 0.06 -0.03Parent communication 0.00 0.04 0.00Parent alienation 0.06 0.04 0.06Trust and tolerance of others -0.11 0.06 -0.07Trust in authorities and organisations -0.17 0.08 -0.07*Civic action and engagement 0.03 0.04 0.02Peer trust ¥ adolescent depression 0.07 0.07 0.04Peer communication ¥ adolescent

depression-0.13 0.04 -0.14**

Peer alienation ¥ adolescentdepression

-0.01 0.04 -0.01

Parent trust ¥ adolescent depression 0.01 0.06 0.01Parent communication ¥ adolescent

depression0.04 0.04 0.05

Parent alienation ¥ adolescentdepression

0.01 0.05 0.02

R2 = 0.12 for Step 1 (p < .001); DR2 = 0.03 for Step 2 (p < .001);DR2 = 0.01 for Step 3 (p = .002); DR2 = 0.01 for Step 4 (p = .02).

*p < .05, **p < .01.



organisations reported significantly fewer depressive symp-

toms during the transition to adulthood, even when control-

ling for adolescent depression and relationships with parents

and peers. This finding is consistent with but substantially

extends previous research, which has generally focused on

concurrent associations between trust in government and

depression in adulthood (e.g. Veenstra, 2005). Individuals’

trust in the government and other large organisations is

important for community-level factors such as economic

prosperity and effective governance (La Porta, Lopez-

de-Silanes, Shleifer, & Vishny, 1997; Newton, 2001; Sullivan

& Transue, 1999). On an individual level, trust may promote

health by reducing risk and making behaviour more predict-

able in social interactions, thus facilitating the development

and maintenance of cooperative relationships between indi-

viduals (La Porta et al., 1997; Putzel, 1997). This aspect of

trust may also be particularly important for well-being

because it may promote other aspects of distal social capital

such as generalised social trust and civic engagement

(Brehm & Rahn, 1997).

Another interesting finding was the non-significant rela-

tionship observed between civic engagement and depres-

sion. Thus, civic engagement as measured here did not

contribute to recovery from depression. Civic engagement

may have negative as well as positive effects and be a source

of psychological strain (Yates & Youniss, 1996). For example,

Coles and Brenner’s (1965) qualitative study of young

people involved in the civil rights movement found that

volunteers had to face the frustrations of their own lack of

knowledge, resources, and ability to affect instant change,

before emerging with a sense of long-term purpose. Further-

more, civic engagement is likely to expose individuals to

others in difficult circumstances, and empathic distress (the

tendency to become upset or anxious when observing other

people in negative conditions) is associated with depression

(O’Connor, Berry, Weiss, & Gilbert, 2002).

The current finding may also reflect a changing expression

of civic engagement among contemporary Australian youth.

Harris, Wyn, and Younes (2007) argue that young people’s

civic engagement increasingly occurs in informal environ-

ments where young people feel comfortable, that they

belong, and are likely to be heard (e.g., in informal peer

groups or online chat rooms). This type of youth civic

engagement may have a stronger relationship to depression

and well-being, as it reflects a more normative type of

engagement in contexts where young people feel comfort-

able and efficacious. Hence, future research should investi-

gate whether civic engagement as conceptualised by Harris

et al. (2007) is associated with lower depression over the

transition to adulthood.

An alternative explanation for the current findings is that

the tendency towards negative appraisal associated with

depression may have affected responses to the social capital

measures, thus accounting for associations between subjec-

tive aspects of social capital and depression, and non-

associations between behavioural aspects of social capital

and depression (De Silva et al., 2005). However, this is

unlikely to be the case for a number of reasons. First, pre-

vious experiences of depression were controlled for in the

current analysis and depression and social capital were mea-

sured at different time points, thus making it unlikely that

the observed relationship was a product of the influence of

either previous or concurrent experiences of depression on

responses to social capital measures. Second, depression is

also associated with behavioural withdrawal from the social

Figure 1 Relationship between depres-sion in adolescence and early adulthoodby level of peer communication in lateadolescence.Note. High and low values on the predic-tors correspond to 1 standard deviationgreater than and less than sample means,respectively.

Low

0.75

0.65

0.55

0.45

0.35

0.25Medium

Depression in adolescence

Dep

ress

ion

in e

arly

ad

ult

ho

od

High

Peer communicationHighMediumLow

Table 4 Standard errors and t-tests for simple slopes of regressionof adolescent depression on early adult depression

Level of peercommunication Simple slope SE t(1,154)

High 0.07 0.02 3.31**Medium 0.15 0.01 20.48**Low 0.23 0.02 11.21**

**p < .001.



environment (American Psychiatric Association, 2000), and

hence a relationship between decreased behavioural aspects

of social capital (i.e., civic action and engagement) and

depression is equally plausible, yet was not observed. Third,

trust and tolerance of others is also a subjective aspect of

social capital, but did not significantly predict depression,

again suggesting that negative appraisal associated with

depression is an insufficient explanation for the observed

results.

A limitation of the current study that warrants consider-

ation relates to the direction of effects between social capital

and depression; that is, whether social capital reduces

depression or depression reduces social capital (De Silva

et al., 2005). Almost all previous research in this area has

been cross-sectional, making it impossible to infer the direc-

tion of effects. In the current study, social capital was mea-

sured as an antecedent of depression, and earlier experiences

of depression were controlled for in the analyses, thus sup-

porting the hypothesised direction of effects from social

capital to depression. However, we were unable to entirely

resolve this question as social capital was not measured in

adolescence, and thus earlier social capital could not be

controlled for in the model. Hence, this possibility requires

exploration in future research. It should also be noted that

the effect sizes observed in relation to the social capital

factors were relatively modest, although the analysis was

stringent in controlling for other highly influential factors,

most notably adolescent depression.

Future research should examine the possibility of non-

linear relationships between depression and trust. At very

high levels, social capital may impede successful functioning

(Putzel, 1997). For example, right wing authoritarianism, a

personality trait characterised by a high degree of trust in

and submissiveness to authorities (Altemeyer, 1996), has

been consistently associated with prejudiced attitudes

towards out-groups (e.g. Laythe, Finkel, & Kirkpatrick,

2002). Furthermore, the potential role of context in moder-

ating the relationship between trust and depression requires

further investigation. A certain degree of mistrust may be

required and may be functional in negotiating an environ-

ment of high crime and violence (Bradley, 1997). Some level

of mistrust may also be adaptive on a societal level. Chanley,

Rudolph, and Rahn (2000), for example, argue that scepti-

cism about the government’s actions ‘is undoubtedly

healthy in a representative democracy’ (p. 240).

The current findings have a number of implications for

policy and intervention. The findings reinforce the impor-

tance of facilitating strong peer relationships during adoles-

cence and, given the risk posed by adolescent depression for

later depression, the importance of early intervention in

addressing mental health problems. The findings further

suggest that the promotion of trust in society’s important

authorities and organisations—such as through increased

community involvement and social connectedness (Glaeser,

Laibson, Scheinkman, & Soutter, 1999)—may also provide

some protective benefits for depression. However, trust is

not a purely subjective phenomenon (Brehm & Rahn,

1997), and individuals’ expectations of trust are facilitated

by the ‘trustworthiness of the social environment’

(Coleman, 1988: p. 119). For example, Chanley et al.’s

(2000) time series analysis found that the state of the

economy, scandals associated with Congress, and increasing

public concern about crime significantly contributed to

declining levels of trust in the US government over the

1980s and 1990s. Hence, responsible conduct from govern-

ment and other important social bodies is also important for

creating a trustworthy environment that promotes young

people’s emotional well-being.

In summary, this study demonstrates that young peoples’

confidence that important social organisations and authori-

ties will act fairly and responsibly is related to their experi-

ences of depression during the transition to adulthood, even

when controlling for the qualities of their relationships with

family and peers, and depression in adolescence. Given that

adolescent depression was the strongest predictor of later

depression, the findings also direct attention to the impor-

tance of early intervention, and the importance of strong

peer relationships, especially for those who have experi-

enced depressive symptoms in adolescence. These findings

suggest a number of potential avenues for intervention to

reduce depression during the transition to adulthood.

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AUTHOR NOTE

The Australian Temperament Project (ATP) study is led and

managed by the Australian Institute of Family Studies, and

further information is available from the ATP website

(http://www.aifs.com.au/atp). Funding for this analysis was

supported through grants from the Australian Research

Council. Professor Toumbourou is supported by a Victorian

Health Promotion Foundation Senior Research Fellowship.

We wish to acknowledge the work of Professors Margot Prior

and Frank Oberklaid, and Diana Smart, along with other

collaborators who have contributed to the ATP. We would

also like to sincerely thank the participating families for their

loyal support of the study.



the relationship between social capital and depression during the transition to adulthood

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