A new paper, titled “Paradoxical effects of community social cohesion on mental health and help-seeking among older adults: The role of reputation concern and socioeconomic status” on the negative aspects of social capital led by Kuan-Ju Huang (Doctoral Student of Uchida Lab) has been published in Social Science & Medicine.

Trust, mutual help, and attachment within local communities can benefit mental health. However, strong community cohesion may also have negative effects, such as increased concern about how one is perceived by others. In this study, an interdisciplinary team of psychological and social epidemiological researchers analyzed cross-sectional data from approximately 23,000 older adults to examine the relationships among community social cohesion, concern about reputation, and depressive symptoms. The results showed that in communities with stronger social cohesion, individuals tended to be more concerned about how they were viewed by others and that this concern offset the positive mental health benefits of community cohesion. These negative effects were particularly pronounced among individuals with lower levels of education. The results highlight that, by paying attention to both the positive and negative aspects of community cohesion, it is important to promote social connectedness while fostering open communities that do not intensify concerns about reputation.

The full article is freely available here.  The press release (Japanese) is available here.

Reference: Huang, K.-J., Uchida, Y., Takemura, K., Fukushima, S., Aida, J., Hanazato, M., Kanamori, M. (2025). Paradoxical effects of community social cohesion on mental health and help-seeking among older adults: The role of reputation concern and socioeconomic status. Social Science & Medicine, 380, 118234.