Is mental health positively associated with workplace social capital among Danish hospital employees? A multilevel study

Being mentally healthy is associated with being more productive, creative, altruistic, and innovative, which are key values in Western society and highly relevant among hospital employees. However, studies investigating the promotion of mental health rather than the prevention of poor mental health and mental illnesses among hospital employees are limited. Thus, we examined the association between workplace social capital and mental health among hospital employees using electronic survey data collected from Danish hospital employees. The study sample consisted of 1452 employees, corresponding to 40% of the hospital staff. Mental health was assessed using the Mental Health Continuum Short Form, in which mental health is understood as a combination of emotional, psychological, and social well-being. Workplace social capital was assessed using Borg et al.’s (2014) Social Capital Questionnaire, which measures bonding, bridging, and linking social capital in relation to immediate management and the workplace as a whole in four separate subscales. Multiple imputations by chained equations were applied.

Multilevel linear regression analyzes showed a positive association among bonding, bridging, and linking social capital in relation to immediate management and mental health. First, our results highlight that hospital employees’ mental health is associated with social capital in the workplace. Second, the strongest association was found between bridging social capital in work teams and mental health. Third, mental health was significantly poorer among employees aged between 25 and 35 years than among employees aged between 46 and 55 years. However, unlike our theoretical expectation, linking social capital in relation to the workplace as a whole was not associated with mental health. In conclusion, our results provide an impetus for further research on health promotion and interventions in hospitals and in similar sectors.