Reliability and Validity of the Chinese General Social Capital Scale and Its Effect on Physical Disease and Psychological Distress among Chinese Medical Professionals

Sibo Zhao, Yanwen Li, Yonggang Su and Long Sun
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Sibo Zhao: School of Sociology and Psychology, Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing 100081, China
Yanwen Li: Shandong Academy of Social Sciences, Jinan 250002, China
Yonggang Su: School of Basic Medical Sciences, Shandong University, Jinan 250012, China
Long Sun: Center for Health Management and Policy Research, School of Public Health, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, 44 Wenhuaxi Road, Jinan 250012, China

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 12, 1-13

Abstract: The study was designed with two objectives. The first was to assess the factor structure, internal consistency reliability, and preliminary psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the Chinese-translated General Social Capital Scale (GSCS) in a sample of Chinese medical professionals. The second was to investigate the association between general social capital, physical disease, and psychological distress using the same Chinese sample. The English version of the GSCS was translated into Chinese, and its factor structure, estimates of internal consistency reliability, and psychometric properties were examined in a representative sample of medical professionals. In particular, a total of 3367 participants in Shandong Province, China were identified using the multi-stage stratified sampling method. In addition to the GSCS, preliminary data were collected using self-report instruments that included questionnaires on physical diseases, psychological distress, and general sociodemographic information. Results include internal consistency reliability estimates at 0.933 and acceptable values of the Guttman split-half coefficients for the GSCS and its subscales. The Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin value for the Chinese GSCS was 0.933, and the p -value of Bartlett’s test was less than 0.001. Exploratory factor analysis supported nine components of the scale with an acceptable cumulative rate (66.63%). The study further found a negative relationship between physical diseases, psychological distress, and social capital. The Chinese version of the GSCS has a satisfactory factor structure, reliability estimates, and satisfactory evidence of concurrent validity estimates for medical professionals from various demographic backgrounds. The current scale holds promise for wide use in future investigations on Chinese populations.

Keywords: reliability; validity; general social capital scale; physical health; mental health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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