Meta-analysis of the Effect of Social Capital on Mental Health

Various studies have been conducted about the effect of social capital on people’s mental health with different results. For this reason, the goal of this article is to combine the quantitative results of these studies by using the meta-analysis technique. In this meta-analysis, we have chosen eleven studies conducted from 2005 until 2016 which have been published in Iranian authoritative journals. Thus, this study is not based on the sampling method. We have also used CMA2 software for analyzing the collected data. After reviewing homogeneous hypothesis, it became clear that we should use random effects model in this analysis. Results show that the average size of combined and random effects of social capital on mental health is 0/333. But after introducing the two qualitative variables of “statistical population type” and “research time” as the moderator variables in calculating, the size of obtained combined effect reduced to 0/287 and 0/22 respectively which are considered weak effect sizes. Therefore, it is necessary for the future studies to pay due attention to these two variables in their finding estimates. Strategic findings also indicate that considering the social capital of immigrants, marginalized people, students and teachers is a very important issue, because by declining the social capital of these groups, their mental health declines significantly too.