The Impact of Network Status Resources on Health: Moderation by Cultural

Abstract

The article is devoted to such a problem as the impact of social relations on people’s health. One of the directions in researching this issue is linked to analyzing social capital — network resources available to an individual to solve everyday problems. The conceptual basis of the research is the theory of positional network capital by N. Lin, according to which being acquainted to persons with high professional status provides an individual with access to resources that are vital for one’s health and improves its condition. Previous studies conducted in certain countries in different parts of the world generally confirm this theoretical assumption, but it remains unclear why the impact of social capital varies across countries and whether this is due to contextual factors of their socio-economic development and cultural characteristics. To clarify these issues, survey data from the International Social Survey Program (ISSP) 2017 for 30 countries and information (statistical and aggregated) about the differences between them were used. The results of verifying the theoretical ideas about the dependence of state of health on the network resources available to an individual demonstrated that status resources really play an important role in contributing to preserving one’s health. It was also shown that the impact of status and social capital on health depends on the cultural context and is more clearly manifested when trust in other people is widespread in society.