Multidimensional social capital and latent anxiety severity profiles among Chinese medical graduate students: A multicenter cross-sectional study.

Authors

Wen Zhu, Xin Zheng, Ziwei Wang, Niannian Li, Yue Fang, Zhongliang Bai, Jun Wu, Sanyuan Hao, Ziwen Xu, Jiajie Zhao, Ren Chen, Xiaoli Wu

Published in

Bioscience trends. Sep 11, 2026. Epub Sep 11, 2026.

Abstract

Mental health issues, such as anxiety, are highly prevalent among medical graduate students. However, the potential relationship between social capital and anxiety symptoms in medical graduate students has not yet been investigated. Therefore, data were collected in 2024 from a multicenter sample of 2,587 medical graduate students obtained through multistage stratified sampling across northern, central, and southern Anhui Province. Anxiety symptoms were assessed using the 20-item Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS-20). Social capital was evaluated across six dimensions: social participation, social support, social connection, trust, sense of belonging, and reciprocity. Latent profile analysis (LPA) was used to identify latent anxiety severity profiles. Multinomial logistic regression was used to examine associations between social capital dimensions and anxiety severity-profile membership. The prevalence of anxiety symptoms among participants was 30.5%. Three latent anxiety severity profiles were identified: low (50.6%), moderate (18.6%), and high (30.8%). Lower levels of social support, social connection, and trust were associated with greater odds of membership in the moderate- and high-anxiety severity profiles. A higher sense of belonging was associated with lower odds of membership in the high-anxiety profile, whereas higher social participation was associated with greater odds of membership in the high-anxiety profile. Compared with the moderate-anxiety profile, membership in the high-anxiety profile was also associated with higher social participation and lower trust. Cognitive social capital, particularly trust and supportive connections, was consistently associated with lower anxiety severity, whereas structural participation showed a context-dependent association. These findings suggest that the quality and context of social relationships may warrant as much attention as the quantity of participation.

PMID:
42732955
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 14 Sep 2026.

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