The Impact of Social Capital on Happiness (case study: Kerman)

Happiness is one of the most important positive emotions and pleasant affects, which influences the physical and psychological health of the society members. This article attempts to describe happiness as well as its effective factors. The relation of social capital (as a multidimensional concept/ construct) and happiness is studied in this article. This is a survey research through which 384 persons above 18 years old residing in the residential areas of Kerman city have been interviewed through multistage cluster sampling method. The data of 376 questionnaires was analyzed. The findings indicate that variables of strong social network, associational membership, social support, trust of institutions and sense of belonging have significant effects on happiness. In sum, the results of multiple regression indicate that the forms of social capital (structural & cognitive) explain 38 percent of the variances of the dependent variable.