Association between social capital indicators and depressive symptoms among Brazilian university students /Associacao entre indicadores de capital social e sintomas depressivos entre estudantes universitarios brasileiros

The study aimed to investigate the association between social capital indicators and depressive symptoms among university students from Brazil. The study drew on a sample of 579 randomly selected university students, from a greater crossnational study conducted in 2018. Students completed a self-administered questionnaire assessing depressive symptoms, indicators of social capital and lifestyle behaviors. Data were analyzed using multivariate logistic regression models. Indicators of social capital included trust, group membership and frequency of meeting friends. Four social capital indicators were significantly associated with clinically relevant depressive symptoms. Students who agreed that people are likely to take advantage of one another were more likely to report depressive clinically relevant symptoms (OR: 1.80, 95%CI: 1.00 - 3.23) as well as students who agreed that people are not willing to help in case needed (OR: 2.11, 95%CI: 1.02 - 4.36). Perceived stress, smoking and hazardous alcohol consumption were not associated with clinically relevant depressive symptoms. Social capital plays an important role in explaining depressive symptoms among Brazilian university students. The study suggests that creating trust and enhancing participation in social networks can be an important strategy for promoting mental health among university students investigated in this study. Key words Depressive symptoms, Students, Social capital, Latin America O estudo investigou a associacao entre indicadores de capital social e sintomas depressivos entre estudantes universitarios do Brasil. Um estudo transversal foi conduzido com uma amostra de 579 estudantes universitarios selecionados randomica-mente em 2018. Os estudantes completaram ques-tionarios auto-administrados para avaliar sintomas depressivos, indicadores de capital social e comporta-mentos de estilos de vida. Os dados foram analisados usando modelos de regressao logistica multivariada. Indicadores de capital social incluiam confianca, as-sociacoes em grupos, frequencia de encontrar com os amigos, entre outros. Quatro indicadores de capital social se associaram significativamente com relevan-tes sintomas clinicos de depressao. Estudantes que disseram que as pessoas tendem a tirar mais vanta-gens umas das outras eram mais propensas a relatar sintomas clinicos relevantes de depressao (OR: 1.80, 95%CI: 1.00-3.23), assim como estudantes que relataram que as pessoas nao estao dispostas a aju-dar caso precise de a