Social capital and the health and wellbeing of children and adolescents: Briefing Paper 38

This Briefing Paper summarises and discusses the results from a systematic review of the literature on the role and impact of social capital on the health and wellbeing of children and adolescents. An integrative approach was taken, which enabled the synthesis of evidence generated in quantitative and qualitative studies, the majority of the studies included were cross-sectional surveys. The results demonstrate that young people can access social capital through other people (e.g. their parents) and networks (e.g. their community) and they can generate their own (e.g. through friendships).