Social Capital and Its Related Factors in Students of the Hamadan University of Medical Sciences in 2022

Authors
Mohanna Yarahmadi
Amir Mohammad Salehi
Elham Khanlarzadeh
Zahra Sanaei
Sahar Mohammadi Mohtasham
10.61186/ibj.25th-11th-IACRTIMSS
Abstract
Introduction: Social capital is one of the main components of socioeconomic development. One definition is the degree of altruism and the level of mutual trust between people in a society. Paying attention to social capital is especially important in higher education because students' access to high social capital can reduce their social and behavioral problems, which also improves the health of the rest of society.

Methods and Materials: This research was a descriptive-analytical study that was conducted among 222 students of Hamedan University of Medical Sciences. In this study, the 36-question Bullen social capital questionnaire was provided to the students in printed form. Data were collected using random and stratified sampling methods and were evaluated with SPSS version 22 software.

Results: The average age of the students was 24 ± 5 years, and in terms of gender, 121 were male and 101 were female. The significant findings of this research indicate that in some areas, the social capital of girls is less than that of boys, married people are less than singles, residents of rented houses are less than residents of private homes and dormitories, and smokers are less than non-smokers. Also, in the field of social participation, working people, and in the field of interactions with family and friends, non-working people had higher social capital. On the other hand, the relationship between age, grade point average, semester, and level of education with social capital was inverse. However, no statistically significant difference in the social capital score was observed in terms of the family's average monthly income. In total, the average social capital score of Hamedan University of Medical Sciences students was 10.835. Conclusion and Discussion: The social capital of students, especially female students, masters, and doctorates, living in rented houses and with a history of alcohol consumption and smoking, is low, so they need more attention and care. In general, employment, celibacy, lower education level, male gender, and living in a dormitory had a positive correlation with the social capital score.



Keywords
Social Capital
Socioeconomic factors
students