Our original contribution to the literature is threefold Fir

Our original contribution to the literature is threefold. First, the study uses the 12-item GHQ-12 as separate items instead of considering them as a summary score. To our knowledge, it is the first time that this has been attempted within the field of social capital. Employing as dependent variables the single items of GHQ-12 allows a clear evaluation of the specific relationship between social participation measures and each component of psychological health, preventing the loss of information that an aggregation method involves. Second, we consider individuals who are both members and active in associations; the combination of the two states can be considered a further measure of social capital. This hitherto unexamined grouping highlights the importance, for the individual’s psychological well-being, of both social faah inhibitor related to being a member of associations and social support linked to the intense person-to-person interactions that such associations supply. Finally, we employ fixed-effect model specifications with a dependent categorical variable as implemented by Baetschmann, Staub, and Winkelmann (2015). Applying a fixed effects estimator in a short panel is a promising solution to accommodate the unobserved heterogeneity as this estimator, imposing that the heterogeneity is time-invariant, permits unbiased coefficients to be estimated.
Methods
Results In this section, we present the estimations of the empirical models described in Section 2. Table 4, Columns (1–6) and Table 5, Columns (7–12), report the results of the fixed effects ordered logit models, using the longitudinal dataset previously described, for the single items of the GHQ-12. In all columns, we show all the predictors. For each item, we present coefficients and standard errors (in parentheses), which are corrected for heteroskedasticity through individual cluster level. Overall, our data highlight four major findings. First, the estimates of the parameters associated to active are not statistically significant in almost all the GHQ-12 items. Individuals who are active in at least one association have a higher probability of responding, respectively, “better than usual” in concentration (ghqa) (p<0.05) and “much more than usual” in loss of sleep (ghqb) (p<0.05). The evidence on the other GHQ-12 items seems in line with Giordano and Lindström (2011) and Lindström and Giordano (2016) who failed to find for the whole UK population an association between being active in associations and indexes of self-rated psychological health obtained from GHQ-12. Second, the estimates of the parameters associated to member are only statistically significant in one item of the GHQ-12. In particular, the results indicate that being a member of at least one association is positively correlated to a higher likelihood of reporting “better than usual” in believe in self-worth (ghqk) (p<0.05). Third, the estimates of the parameters associated to member * active are statistically significant in most of the GHQ-12 items with the exception of loss of sleep (ghqb), constantly under strain (ghqe), problem overcoming difficulties (ghqf) and unhappy or depressed (ghqi). Hence, being a member and active raises the likelihood of stating “better than usual” in the following “positive” item: concentration (ghqa) (p<0.01), playing a useful role (ghqc) (p<0.01), capable of making decisions (ghqd) (p<0.10), enjoy day-to-day activities (ghqg) (p<0.001), ability to face problems (ghqh) (p<0.001) and general happiness (ghql) (p<0.05). Moreover, being a member and active decreases the probability of responding “much more than usual” in the “negative” items: losing confidence (ghqj) (p<0.05) and believe in self-worth (ghqk) (p<0.05). Fourth, few parameters of the control variables are statistically significant in more items of the GHQ-12 psychological health. In line with previous empirical studies, covariates that protect against worse self-rated psychological health include marital and employed status (statistically significant in almost all items). By contrast, the number of visits to the GP worsens self-rated psychological health (in all items p<0.001), and reporting at least one health problem increases the probability of responding “much more than usual” in the “negative” items: loss of sleep (ghqb)(p<0.01), constantly under stress (ghqe)(p<0.05), losing confidence (ghqj)(p<0.001).