Longitudinal association between social capital and self-esteem: a matter of context

The aim of this study is to investigate the longitudinal association between indicators of different components of social capital at the individual, household, and area levels and self-esteem while adjusting for various confounders at multiple levels. Respondents participating in Wave 1 (2009) and 2 (2010) of the Seoul Welfare Panel Study were used in the analysis. The final sample for the current study includes a total of 5127 participants in 2738 households within 25 administrative areas. This study shows that only a small amount of variance in self-esteem was attributed to the area level (7.6%). On the other hand, a relatively large amount of variance in self-esteem was attributed to the household level (52.5%). It has also shown that all individual-level social capital indicators including perceived helpfulness, organizational participation, and volunteer work were positively associated with self-esteem. Among household-level indicators of social capital, only organizational participation was associated with self-esteem. However, none of the area-level social capital indicators were associated with self-esteem. The main finding of the current study suggested that the association between social capital and self-esteem varied depending on both dimensions and levels of social capital indicators.