The mitigating role of social capital on the association between food insecurity and psychological distress among Chinese adults

Xiang Qi, Yaolin Pei, Gen Li, Yuming Liu, Weiming Tang, Brian J Hall and Bei Wu

International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 2024, vol. 70, issue 8, 1542-1551

Abstract: Background: Food insecurity, a pervasive global issue exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, has been linked to adverse mental health outcomes. However, the role of social capital in mitigating this relationship remains understudied, particularly in the Chinese context. Aims: This study investigated the associations between food insecurity and psychological distress (depressive and anxiety symptoms) and examined the potential moderating effects of bonding and bridging social capital among Chinese adults in Shanghai. Methods: This cross-sectional study included 3,220 Chinese adults (mean age: 34.45; 51.5% male) in Shanghai. Food insecurity was assessed using the modified Household Food Insecurity Access Scale, psychological distress was measured using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7, and social capital was evaluated using the Revised Personal Social Capital Scale. Results: Multivariable linear regression analyses revealed that food insecurity was significantly positively associated with both depressive (β = 0.449, SE  = 0.024) and anxiety symptoms (β = 0.391, SE  = 0.022), after adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics, health status, and COVID-19-related factors. Higher levels of bonding and bridging social capital were significantly associated with fewer depressive and anxiety symptoms. Significant interactions ( p  

Keywords: Food security; social determinants of health; mental health; social Network; COVID-19; Chinese (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00207640241277152 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:socpsy:v:70:y:2024:i:8:p:1542-1551

DOI: 10.1177/00207640241277152

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in International Journal of Social Psychiatry
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().