The Effects of Family Relations on Youth Mental Health in the City of Isfahan

Family can play an important role in improving an individual's mental health through the provision of close and positive relations (social capital). The present study aimed to analyze the effects of family social capital on youth mental health in Isfahan during 2009. In this survey, a stratified sample of 384 males and famales aged 15-19 were studied utilizing an 80-item questionnaire. The 28-item general mental health questionnaire provided by the World Health Organization (Cronbach's alpha = 0.88) was used to measure mental health. Other questions assessed family social capital in six categories including participation, trust, solidarity, economic support, emotional support, and family supervision and control (Cronbach's alpha = 0.90). To analyze the data regarding dependent and independent variables correlation coefficient, the coefficient of determination, analysis of variance, and t-test were used. Amos 18 was utilized to construct the structural equation model. The findings showed that family social capital (such as participation in decision making (R2 = 0.116, trust (R2 = 0.255), solidarity (R2 = 0.192), economic support (R2 = 0.201), emotional support (R2 = 0.184), family supervision (R2 = 0.116)) significantly promoted individual's mental health (α = 0.63). The results also indicated that higher socioeconomic status of the family had a significant positive effect on youth mental health. However, variables like age, sex and level of education had no significant relations with mental health.