The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between social capital and health among Chinese immigrants. The sample included 101 older Chinese immigrants aged 60 to 96 who were recruited in 2013 in a city on the Canadian prairies. Participant completed a questionnaire assessing their structural and cognitive social capital (views on community, trust and reciprocity, civic participation, social networks and support, and social participation), physical and mental health status (SF-36), and sociodemographic characteristics. Findings indicate that Chinese seniors overall obtained low levels of social capital on all social capital dimensions. Social networks and support (a structural social capital indicator) was significantly positively associated with mental health (β =.31, p OpenSPiltSPi.01), particularly among older Chinese immigrants and among Chinese women (both β =.51, p OpenSPiltSPi.01). Civic participation was also associated with mental health, albeit negatively, among female participants (β =.35, p OpenSPiltSPi.05). These findings suggest that ensuring structural social capital is potentially more promising than ensuring cognitive social capital in terms of providing physical and mental health benefits to older adults from Chinese background. © 2018, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

Health Older immigrants Social capital

Grassland Short Form 36 China prairie immigrant social capital Chinese mental health human epidemiology Asian continental ancestry group social network health status Aged social support ethnology Cross-Sectional Studies Surveys and Questionnaires cross-sectional study migrant psychology Trust Humans male Canada Emigrants and Immigrants female questionnaire social participation human experiment