How social capital and social support differs for construction workers with and without psychological distress

The purpose of this research was to explore how social capital (friends, family, work colleagues) and social support
(emotional, tangible, informational, and companionship) might differ for construction workers with and without
psychological distress. A cross-sectional sample of civil construction workers completed a structured interview
process to obtain their social capital and social support availability, with a survey to assess their level of psychological
distress.
Interview information collected data on social capital using the free-recall name generation method, perceived
closeness to the social capital, and the perceived strength of the different types of social support received from the
nominated capital. Using UCINET, a social network analysis adopting an ego-net approach was carried out on workers
(n = 14) to visually explore differences in the size, strength, and composition of their social networks. Ego-nets were
created for social capital and for each of the social support types received from the nominated capital. A visual
comparison was performed between ego-nets of social capital and each type of social support to determine if any
differences exist between construction workers with and without distress. Construction workers without distress
tended to have a larger network with more sources of social capital available, in addition to closer relationships when
compared to those experiencing distress.
Further, workers without distress had more emotional support availability available from a variety of sources. There
appeared to be no differences in the size, strength, and availability between workers without distress, and those with
distress for social support related to tangible, informational, and companionship. This indicates that access to a
variety of social capital and perceived closeness to the capital is potentially important for these workers. Further, the
perceived availability to access (and potentially utilise) high amounts of emotional support may be important in
protecting against psychological distress in construction workers.