Social Participation in Poland: Links to Emotional Well-Being and Risky Alcohol Consumption

Maria K. Pavlova • Rainer K. Silbereisen • Kamil Sijko

Accepted: 24 April 2013� Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013

Abstract Social participation has been hypothesised to have both positive and negative

impact on health outcomes via a variety of pathways, but previous studies have found few

significant effects of social participation, and there is a lack of research from post-com-

munist societies, which are known to be low on social capital. Using cross-sectional data

from Poland on 2,970 individuals surveyed in 2009, we investigated the individual-level

relationships between formal and informal social participation, emotional well-being, and

risky alcohol consumption while controlling for demographic variables, socioeconomic

status, employment and partnership status, health, religiosity, and generalised trust. Fre-

quent joint activities with friends and neighbours were related to higher positive affect but

also to more risky alcohol consumption. Membership in voluntary organisations was

associated with more risky alcohol consumption, especially among younger males and for

certain types of organisations. In contrast, volunteer work was related to higher positive

affect and fewer depressive symptoms in the whole sample and to less risky alcohol

consumption among the younger participants. The findings illustrate that some types of

social participation, even if they are not typical of a given context (e.g., volunteering in

Poland), may be more beneficial than others.

Keywords Social capital � Social participation � Formal and informal ties � Volunteering �Mental health � Alcohol abuse

M. K. Pavlova (&) � R. K. SilbereisenCenter for Applied Developmental Science (CADS), Friedrich Schiller University Jena,Semmelweisstr. 12, 07743 Jena, Germanye-mail: maria.pavlova@uni-jena.de

K. SijkoPolish Educational Research Institute, Gorczewska 8, 01-180 Warsaw, Poland

123

Soc Indic ResDOI 10.1007/s11205-013-0332-9

1 Introduction

Recent years have seen the growing interest of researchers in the relationship between

social capital and health. Social capital has been conceptualised at the collective level as

cohesion, trust, and reciprocity characterising social groups and networks; in turn, an

individual is thought to be endowed with social capital if they are embedded in groups and

networks that provide support and useful connections (Bourdieu 1986; Coleman 1988;

Putnam 1993). The concept of social capital encompasses structural (accessibility of social

connections and networks) and cognitive (qualities of social connections, e.g., trust and

reciprocity), formal (institutionalised relationships, e.g., between members of voluntary

associations) and informal (e.g., relationships between relatives, friends, and neighbours),

and other dimensions (Baum and Ziersch 2003; Ferlander 2007). In the present study, we

focused on individual social capital in Poland, in particular on its structural component,

participation in social groups and activities (Guillen et al. 2011). Formal participation has

been put forward as a cornerstone of social capital (Putnam 1993), but it is exactly this

form of participation that was eroded under the communist regime, where informal, private

networks were the main source of social support and reciprocity (Howard 2003). We were

therefore interested to juxtapose these forms of social participation in contemporary

Poland.

Social participation has long been considered essential to mental and physical health

and longevity (Berkman et al. 2000; Durkheim 1951). First, it provides direct emotional

benefits through interaction with others and gives access to social support (emotional,

instrumental, informational, etc.; Berkman et al. 2000; Ferlander 2007). Second, engage-

ment in meaningful social roles, such as the volunteer role, shapes one’s identity and brings

a sense of ‘‘mattering’’ (Berkman et al. 2000; Borgonovi 2008; Thoits and Hewitt 2001).

Third, greater social participation makes an individual more responsive to social influence

(i.e., social control, social norms, social comparison, and peer pressure), which can

powerfully encourage (or discourage) health-enhancing (or health-damaging) behaviours,

such as physical exercise or alcohol abuse (Berkman et al. 2000; Ferlander 2007; Skog

1985). Finally, social participation may also lead to distress if the claims on group

members become excessive (Portes 1998). Thus, social participation may be related to

different health outcomes via different pathways. In the present study, we linked different

forms of social participation with health behavioural (i.e., risky alcohol consumption) and

psychological (i.e., positive affect and depression) indicators, which, according to Berk-

man et al. (2000), are more proximal outcomes of social participation than physical health

indicators.

2 Empirical Research on Social Participation, Emotional Well-Being, and AlcoholAbuse

Prior research typically compared the effects of social participation with those of gener-

alised trust (i.e., a cognitive dimension of social capital) and used a variety of outcomes

(for reviews, see Almedom 2005; De Silva et al. 2005). As to emotional well-being,

findings from the World Values Survey as well as US and Canadian studies attested to the

positive effects of both social participation (membership in voluntary associations and

informal interactions with friends, extended family, and neighbours) and generalised trust

on life satisfaction and happiness (Helliwell and Putnam 2005). However, Giordano and

Lindstrom (2011), using data from the British Household Panel Survey, found that,

M. K. Pavlova et al.

123

although nonparticipation in local groups and infrequent contacts to neighbours predicted

self-rated psychological health deterioration, only generalised trust was associated with

improvement over time. A number of other studies also found that generalised trust, but not

social participation, was related to greater emotional well-being. For instance, Fujiwara

and Kawachi (2008) found no relationship of volunteering and community participation

with depression in US adults. O’Connor et al. (2011) reported similar findings for Aus-

tralian early adults, whereas Chappell and Funk (2010) found no associations between

formal and informal social participation and mental health among Canadian middle-aged

adults. In non-Western settings, Yip et al. (2007) found few positive effects of party and

organisational membership on psychological health and subjective well-being in rural

China, whereas Yamaoka (2008) reported that membership in voluntary organisations was

unrelated to life satisfaction in several East Asian countries. Likewise, Rose (2000)

reported that formal and informal social participation had few effects on emotional health

in Russians. Furthermore, De Silva et al. (2007) actually found that membership in

community groups and involvement in citizenship activities were related to a higher

likelihood of common mental disorders in Peru, Ethiopia, and Andhra Pradesh. Similarly,

Mitchell and LaGory (2002) reported that formal social participation was associated with a

higher mental distress in a low-income, minority neighbourhood in the US. The authors

concluded that formal social participation in severely disadvantaged communities seems to

bring more distress than support because individuals feel overtaxed by additional

obligations.

With regard to alcohol consumption, both formal and informal social participation was

found to foster alcohol abuse in cultures where alcohol consumption is a common part of

social interaction, such as Italy (Buonanno and Vanin 2007) and Russia (Jukkala et al.

2008), which agreed with Skog’s (1991) contention that socially integrated individuals in

‘‘wet’’ cultures drink more. In the US, Theall et al. (2009) and Weitzman and Chen (2005)

found that community service and volunteering were related to lower alcohol consumption,

whereas membership in associations was related to higher alcohol consumption among

college students. Apparently, certain types of social capital, such as volunteering, may be

protective against binge drinking even in the settings where binge drinking is largely

regarded as a norm. Other studies using representative samples of US adolescents found

that membership in voluntary organisations was related to a generally lower likelihood of

alcohol and drug abuse (Bartkowski and Xu 2007; Winstanley et al. 2008).

Taken together, prior findings support the idea that the effects of social participation

depend on the context and on the type of predictors and outcomes under investigation.

Given the importance of context, a lack of studies conducted in post-communist states is a

particular omission; in fact, except for a few studies conducted on the Russian samples, we

were unable to find any relevant evidence from Central and East European countries. The

present study is therefore one of the first steps to fill this gap.

3 Social Participation, Mental Health, and Alcohol Consumption in Poland

Although Poles’ individual prosperity, as well as human capital (e.g., educational attain-

ment and use of modern technologies), have been growing impressively over recent

decades, the corresponding increase in social capital has been only modest (Czapinski and

Panek 2010). Similarly to other post-communist societies, the Polish society still suffers

from a lack of trust in social institutions and scepticism about the efficacy of collective

action (Howard 2003). The rates of membership in voluntary organisations and volunteer

Social Participation in Poland

123

work are substantially lower in Poland than in West European countries. According to a

recent Eurobarometer study, in 2011, Poland featured the lowest percentage of respondents

currently doing some voluntary work among the 27 EU member states (9 % in Poland vs.

the median of 24 %; Monitoring Public Opinion Unit 2011). In the European Social Survey

conducted in 2010, 7.1 % of Polish respondents reported to have worked in ‘‘another [i.e.,

non-political] organisation or association’’ in the past 12 months (European Social Survey

Data 2012). In Poland, being a volunteer does not make one popular, and some individuals

who do voluntary work do not conceive of themselves as volunteers (Centrum Badania

Opinii Społecznej 2011).

It is commonly believed that in post-communist societies private networks of friends

and relatives prevail over the structures of civil society and hence play a more important

role than in Western democracies (Howard 2003). However, recent survey findings suggest

that informal social participation is lower in post-communist countries than elsewhere in

the EU. In 2010, 15.2 % of Polish respondents reported to meet socially friends, relatives,

and colleagues less often than once a month, which coincided with the median for Central

and East European member states but was higher than the overall EU median (9.9 %).

Moreover, 10.3 % of Polish respondents reported having no one to discuss intimate and

personal matters with (overall EU median 8.6 %; Central and East European member states

median 13.8 %; all figures taken from European Social Survey Data 2012).

Concerning mental health indicators, in the early 2000s, about 25 % of Polish women

and 18 % of Polish men had minor psychiatric morbidity, which roughly corresponded to

average figures for the EU (World Health Organization 2005). In terms of alcohol abuse

Poland, with its estimated per capita 11.7 l of pure alcohol per year in 2002 fared better

than the majority of EU states (Popova et al. 2007). However, the percentage of Poles

admitting to have drunk too much in the past year increased from 5.3 % in 2000 to 6.5 %

in 2009 (Czapinski and Panek 2010). On the whole, though, available mental health and

alcohol abuse indicators do not suggest a gloomier picture in Poland than in West Euro-

pean countries, whereas both formal and informal social participation appears to be lower

in Poland. Does this apparent disconnection indicate that social participation in Poland is

not a salient correlate of health behaviours and emotional well-being at the individual

level?

To answer this question, we conducted a secondary analysis of a cross-sectional survey

of Polish adolescents and adults (age 16–46). We chose frequency of joint activities with

friends and neighbours as a measure of informal participation, whereas membership in

voluntary organisations and volunteer work represented formal participation (cf. Guillen

et al. 2011). As an indicator of generalised trust was available, we included it as a control

variable. Drawing on Berkman et al.’s (2000) model, we reasoned that these forms of

social participation all involve pleasurable social interactions and may serve as a source of

social support. At the same time, they are unlikely to be associated with distress in a

general population-based sample as the overall economic situation in Poland is not bad (cf.

De Silva et al. 2007; Mitchell and LaGory 2002). Hence, we expected all the three

indicators of social participation to be related to higher emotional well-being. Furthermore,

we hypothesised that the effects of informal participation would be stronger than those of

formal participation as the latter is relatively uncommon in Poland and may be held in less

esteem by the society (Centrum Badania Opinii Społecznej 2011; Howard 2003).

With regard to risky alcohol consumption, we assumed that different forms of social

participation might differentially impact it through the social influence pathway (Berkman

et al. 2000; Skog 1985, 1991). The Polish drinking culture is characterised by irregular

binge drinking on weekends and at social events (Popova et al. 2007). Hence, joint

M. K. Pavlova et al.

123

activities with friends and neighbours may involve consuming alcohol in large amounts,

and the same may happen at organisational meetings of voluntary associations after the

official part is over. For this reason, we expected both frequent activities with friends and

neighbours and membership in voluntary organisations to be related to a greater incidence

of risky alcohol consumption. In contrast, volunteer work may be protective against risky

alcohol consumption as almost all kinds of work require sobriety and are associated with

corresponding social norms (cf. Theall et al. 2009; Weitzman and Chen 2005).

4 Sample and Procedure

We used data from the Polish replication of the Jena Study on Social Change and Human

Development (Silbereisen et al. 2006), which investigated adult development and adjust-

ment in times of social change. Participants aged 16–46 were drawn from two Eastern

(Lublin and Subcarpathian) and two Western (Pomeranian and Lower Silesian) provinces

representing economically poorer and wealthier regions of Poland, respectively. The

sampling frame, which was stratified by community size, age, and gender, was created

using the Universal Electronic System for Registration of the Population. As a starting

point, the interviewers (trained personnel of a field research agency) tried to approach

specific individuals randomly selected from the sampling frame. If the target person was

not available for an interview, the interviewer looked for eligible individuals in the

neighbourhood using the random route technique (a procedure often used in market

research; Adams and Brace 2006). Because of the financial constraints of the project, each

address was tried only once, which impacted the response rate (approx. 40 %). Altogether,

3078 standardised computer-assisted personal interviews, lasting about 90 min, were

carried out from February to April 2009. As lower educated, unemployed, and single

individuals were somewhat overrepresented in this sample in comparison with the registry

data and other representative sources (Archiwum Danych Społecznych 2011; Głowny

Urzad Statystyczny 2010), we used sampling weights created with the iterative propor-

tional fitting procedure. Sample size for the present study was N = 2970 as we excluded

the participants with missing values on major sociodemographic variables. The measures

described below were mostly translated into Polish from German with a forward and

backward translation procedure.

5 Measures

5.1 Outcome Variables

For multi-item scales, we used mean scores on the items unless specified otherwise. The

10-item positive affect subscale of the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (Watson

et al. 1988) measured how often the participants had experienced certain positive emotions

within the last month (e.g., ‘‘enthusiastic’’; 1 = never, 7 = very often; a = .91).

Depressive symptoms were measured with five items from the Brief Symptom Inventory

(Derogatis 1993) assessing prevalence of the symptoms in the last month (e.g., ‘‘feeling

hopeless about the future’’; 1 = not at all, 7 = very strongly; a = .91; logged scores were

used). Risky alcohol consumption was a count variable measuring the approximate number

of times being really drunk in the past year. To mitigate the influence of extreme cases (the

largest value was 250 times a year), we assigned the value of 21 to thirty-six participants

Social Participation in Poland

123

who reported to have been really drunk more than 20 times in the past year. Extreme values

might be untrustworthy; besides, overdispersion violates the assumptions of Poisson

regression which we used to predict risky alcohol consumption. At the same time, by

recoding extreme cases, we did not lose so much information as we would have lost if we

had them excluded from the sample (cf. Saffari et al. 2011).

5.2 Social Participation

Frequency of joint activities with friends and neighbours was assessed with one item:

‘‘How often do you engage in joint activities with friends and acquaintances from the place

where you live?’’ (1 = never, 2 = sometimes, 3 = often). Membership in voluntary or-ganisations (0 = no, 1 = yes) referred to the current membership in one or more of the

following organisations: trade union; business or employer association; farmers’ union;

guild, professional organisation; cultural, regional association; charity, educational orga-

nisation; religious association; voluntary fire service; other. Volunteer work in the past

12 months (0 = no, 1 = yes) was assessed with two items: ‘‘Have you ever worked

without payment for the benefit of other people or organisations (i.e., for the public good)?

Was this within the last 12 months?’’ The correlations between the three indicators of

social participation ranged from .08 to .29.

5.3 Control Variables

Sociodemographic variables included community size (1 = under 2000 inhabitants,

7 = more than 500,000 inhabitants), gender (0 = male, 1 = female), age in years, edu-cational track (1 = primary/incomplete secondary; 2 = secondary/post-secondary;

3 = tertiary/incomplete tertiary; for those still in education, the level of their current

educational institution was used), net personal income in zloty (logged scores were used),

employment status (students, employed individuals, and homemakers/unemployed; dummy

coded in regression analyses), partnership status (0 = without a steady partner, 1 = with a

steady partner, irrespective of legal status), and parenthood (0 = no, 1 = yes). Further-

more, we used two indicators of physical health. General health was assessed with four

items (e.g., ‘‘I am as healthy as anybody I know’’; 1 = completely disagree, 7 = com-

pletely agree; a = .77) from the German version of the SF-36 Health Survey (Bullinger

and Kirchberger 1998). Physical handicap was measured with one item (‘‘Are you per-

manently physically handicapped either since birth or due to an accident?’’; 0 = no,

1 = yes). Religiosity was assessed with two items (e.g., ‘‘My religious faith allows me to

survive the most difficult situations’’; 1–7 as above; a = .94; Grom et al. 1998). Finally,

generalised trust was measured with two items (‘‘In most cases you can be sure that other

people are friendly’’ and ‘‘If you cooperate with people, in most cases they take advantage

of you’’, inverse coded; 1–7 as above; a = .44).

6 Statistical Analyses

All analyses were conducted with Mplus v.6 (Muthen and Muthen 2010). We employed

hierarchical multiple regression, whereby Model 1 assessed the effects of control variables

and Model 2 added the effects of social participation. For positive affect and depressive

symptoms, we used a linear regression with robust maximum likelihood estimation,

wherein standardised regression coefficients served as effect size measures. For risky

M. K. Pavlova et al.

123

alcohol consumption, which was a count variable with an excessive number of zeroes, we

used zero-inflated Poisson regression (Cohen et al. 2003), where the dependent variable

was decomposed into the inflation part (i.e., the odds to have never been really drunk in the

past year vs. to have been really drunk at least once) and the count part (i.e., times being

really drunk in the past year provided that this had happened at least once). Two separate

regression equations for each part were estimated simultaneously. Here, odds ratios (for the

inflation part) or ratios of the expected counts (for the count part), both computed as

Exp(B), served as effect size measures.

7 Results

Descriptive statistics for the study variables are given in Table 1. The rates of formal social

participation reported by our participants were low, even if somewhat higher than the

recent figures from comparative European surveys (Monitoring Public Opinion Unit 2011;

European Social Survey Data 2012), which might be due to measurement differences. Joint

activities with friends and neighbours were much more common; however, more than one-

fifth of the respondents said they never undertook something together with friends and

neighbours. This finding coincided with other recent reports (European Social Survey Data

2012) and suggested that informal social participation might be not as widespread in

Poland as usually believed (Howard 2003). With regard to outcome variables, mean

positive affect was above the scale midpoint, whereas mean depressive symptoms were

well below, which indicated a high average level of emotional well-being in the sample.

Patterns of risky alcohol consumption differed drastically between males and females:

81.6 % of females, but only 46.4 % of males, said they had never been really drunk in the

past year. For those who had, the mean number of times being drunk in the past year was

2.7 among females and 4.7 among males.

7.1 Emotional Well-Being

Table 2 shows regression estimates for emotional well-being. Significant predictors of

positive affect in Model 1 were younger age, higher educational attainment, larger income,

steady partnership, better general health, and higher religiosity. The effect of generalised

trust was not significant. In Model 2, more frequent joint activities with friends and

neighbours and volunteer work were significantly associated with higher positive affect,

which followed our expectations. However, the effect of membership in voluntary or-

ganisations was not significant. In terms of effect sizes, for joint activities with friends and

neighbours, b = .141, 95 % CI [.101, .182]; for volunteer work, b = .071, 95 % CI [.035,

.107]. Comparing the model with these standardised coefficients constrained to be equal

with the unconstrained model showed that they were significantly different,

Dv2(1) = 6.16, p \ .05 (i.e., as expected, the effect of joint activities with friends and

neighbours was stronger).

Significant predictors of depressive symptoms in Model 1 were larger community size,

female gender, lower educational attainment, absence of a steady partner, poorer general

health, and lower generalised trust. In Model 2, only volunteer work additionally had a

significantly negative effect on depressive symptoms, b = -.083, 95 % CI [-.121,

-.045], although we had expected all social participation indicators, especially informal

social participation, to be protective against depressive symptoms.

Social Participation in Poland

123

7.2 Risky Alcohol Consumption

Regression results for risky alcohol consumption are given in Table 3. In Model 1, larger

community size, male gender, younger age, lower educational attainment, larger income,

steady partnership, poorer general health, and lower religiosity were significantly associ-

ated with having been really drunk at least once in the past year. In addition, larger

community size, male gender, being a homemaker/unemployed, and lower religiosity

predicted a greater number of times getting drunk (provided that this had happened at least

once). The effects of generalised trust were not significant. In Model 2, joint activities with

friends and neighbours predicted having been really drunk at least once in the past year,

Exp(B) = 1.495, 95 % CI [1.266, 1.766]. That is, individuals reporting to undertake

something with their friends and neighbours sometimes (vs. never) or often (vs. some-

times) had one and a half times greater odds to have been really drunk at least once in the

past year (vs. not to have been drunk) than the respective reference group.

However, this was only partly in line with our hypotheses as membership in voluntary

organisations and volunteer work had no significant effects. We therefore explored whether

Table 1 Sociodemographic characteristics of the sample and descriptive statistics for the study variables

Variables n (%) Range M (SD)

Community size 1–7 2.3 (1.6)

Female 1,465 (49.3 %)

Age, years 16–46 30.5 (8.6)

Educational track

Primary/incomplete secondary 960 (32.3 %)

Secondary and post-secondary 1,261 (42.5 %)

Tertiary/incomplete tertiary 749 (25.2 %)

Income, zloty 0–7,500.5 1,298.3 (1,192.3)

Student 446 (15.0 %)

Employed 1,750 (58.9 %)

Homemaker/unemployed 774 (26.1 %)

Has a steady partner 2,272 (76.5 %)

Has children 1,739 (58.6 %)

General health 1–7 5.4 (1.2)

Physical handicap 84 (2.8 %)

Religiosity 1–7 4.5 (1.7)

Generalised trust 1–7 4.4 (1.2)

Joint activities with friends and neighbours

Often 553 (18.6 %)

Sometimes 1,737 (58.5 %)

Never 680 (22.9 %)

Membership in voluntary organisations 443 (14.9 %)

Volunteer work in the past 12 months 353 (11.9 %)

Positive affect 1–7 4.8 (1.1)

Depressive symptoms 1–7 2.1 (1.3)

Risky alcohol consumption, times in the past year 0–21 1.5 (3.6)

Statistics are based on weighted data

M. K. Pavlova et al.

123

the effects of social participation would be more pronounced among younger participants.

Indeed, among those younger than 26 years of age (n = 992), membership in voluntary

organisations had a significant positive effect on the number of times being drunk in the

past year (i.e., on the count part of the dependent variable), B(SE) = 0.730(0.217),

Table 2 Regression results for positive affect and depressive symptoms

Predictors Positive affect Depressive symptoms (logged)

Model 1 Model 2 Model 1 Model 2

Community size 0.024(0.014)

0.020(0.014)

0.037***(0.007)

0.036***(0.007)

Female -0.071(0.048)

-0.047(0.046)

0.075**(0.023)

0.072**(0.023)

Age -0.016***(0.004)

-0.018***(0.004)

0.000(0.002)

0.001(0.002)

Educational track 0.120***(0.032)

0.093**(0.032)

-0.040*(0.016)

-0.032*(0.016)

Income (logged) 0.043***(0.011)

0.041***(0.010)

-0.001(0.005)

0.000(0.005)

Studenta 0.183(0.094)

0.122(0.092)

-0.034(0.043)

-0.014(0.043)

Homemaker/unemployeda 0.035(0.068)

0.048(0.065)

0.028(0.030)

0.028(0.030)

Has a steady partner 0.236***(0.057)

0.223***(0.056)

-0.139***(0.032)

-0.137***(0.032)

Has children -0.067(0.068)

-0.027(0.065)

0.015(0.034)

0.009(0.034)

General health 0.220***(0.019)

0.210***(0.019)

-0.164***(0.010)

-0.163***(0.010)

Physical handicap -0.194(0.233)

-0.229(0.219)

-0.104(0.080)

-0.093(0.082)

Religiosity 0.109***(0.016)

0.101***(0.016)

0.008(0.007)

0.011(0.007)

Generalised trust 0.001(0.020)

-0.005(0.019)

-0.045***(0.009)

-0.043***(0.008)

Joint activities with friends and neighbours 0.236***(0.035)

-0.014(0.017)

Membership in voluntary organisations 0.086(0.072)

0.002(0.034)

Volunteer work 0.237***(0.062)

-0.139***(0.033)

R2 0.146*** 0.175*** 0.192*** 0.199***

Dv2(df) – 88.236***(3)

– 18.843***(3)

N = 2,970. Cells show unstandardised regression coefficients with standard errors in parentheses. Model1 = a model with control variables only. Model 2 = a model with social participation indicators added.R2 = proportion of variance explained by the model. Dv2 refers to the difference from Model 1.df = degrees of freedom

* p \ .05. ** p \ .01. *** p \ .001a Reference category: employed

Social Participation in Poland

123

p = .001, Exp(B) = 2.075, 95 % CI [1.357, 3.171]. That is, in this age group, members of

voluntary organisations reported to have been drunk in the past year approximately twice

as often as non-members did (provided that this happened at least once). In contrast,

volunteer work had a significant negative effect on the number of times being drunk,

Table 3 Regression results for risky alcohol consumption

Predictors Was really drunk at least oncein the past year

Times really drunk in thepast year

Model 1 Model 2 Model 1 Model 2

Community size 0.107**(0.033)

0.098**(0.033)

0.061*(0.026)

0.059*(0.026)

Female -1.387***(0.116)

-1.366***(0.117)

-0.648***(0.096)

-0.638***(0.096)

Age -0.016*(0.008)

-0.015(0.008)

-0.002(0.007)

-0.002(0.007)

Educational track -0.305***(0.076)

-0.333***(0.079)

-0.075(0.063)

-0.098(0.062)

Income (logged) 0.090***(0.023)

0.092***(0.024)

-0.002(0.018)

0.002(0.018)

Studenta -0.136(0.223)

-0.191(0.226)

0.259(0.157)

0.276(0.153)

Homemaker/unemployeda -0.031(0.138)

-0.006(0.141)

0.257*(0.106)

0.286**(0.106)

Has a steady partner 0.301*(0.132)

0.289*(0.135)

-0.045(0.095)

-0.051(0.094)

Has children -0.183(0.150)

-0.146(0.152)

-0.060(0.111)

-0.046(0.111)

General health -0.134**(0.045)

-0.146**(0.046)

-0.040(0.030)

-0.042(0.031)

Physical handicap -0.312(0.347)

-0.336(0.337)

0.138(0.200)

0.130(0.204)

Religiosity -0.151***(0.034)

-0.155***(0.035)

-0.065*(0.026)

-0.064*(0.026)

Generalised trust -0.034(0.045)

-0.038(0.045)

-0.055(0.035)

-0.055(0.035)

Joint activities with friends and neighbours 0.402***(0.085)

0.124(0.065)

Membership in voluntary organisations 0.262(0.160)

0.198(0.128)

Volunteer work -0.153(0.176)

-0.209(0.133)

Dv2(df) – 22.749***(6)

– 22.749***(6)

N = 2,970. Cells show unstandardised regression coefficients with standard errors in parentheses. Model1 = a model with control variables only. Model 2 = a model with social participation indicators added. Dv2

refers to the difference from Model 1 (for both equations as they are estimated simultaneously). df = de-grees of freedom. Proportion of variance explained is not shown as it cannot be estimated for a countvariable

* p \ .05; ** p \ .01; *** p \ .001a Reference category: employed

M. K. Pavlova et al.

123

B(SE) = -0.519(0.198), p = .009, Exp(B) = 0.595, 95 % CI [0.403, 0.878]. That is, in

this age group, volunteers reported to have been drunk in the past year approximately 1.7

times (1/0.595 = 1.681) less often than non-volunteers did. The effect size for joint

activities with friends and neighbours was very similar to what was found in the whole

sample. Thus, as we hypothesised, only volunteer work seemed to be protective against

risky alcohol consumption, whereas the two other indicators of social participation were

associated with more risky alcohol consumption, in particular among the younger

participants.

We also explored whether the effects of membership in voluntary organisations on risky

alcohol consumption were confined to certain types of organisations. Indeed, trade and

farmers’ unions, professional organisations, and voluntary fire service, but not religious,

cultural, or educational organisations, were associated with more risky alcohol consump-

tion. Not surprisingly, more ‘‘drinking’’ organisations were those where males outnum-

bered females. In general, the effects of social participation on risky alcohol consumption

pertained primarily to males, although frequency of joint activities with friends and

neighbours predicted having been really drunk at least once in the past year among females

as well.

8 Discussion

In the present study, we investigated the individual-level associations between formal and

informal social participation (i.e., structural social capital), emotional well-being, and risky

alcohol consumption in Poland. Our contribution to the literature lies in analysing data

from a region heavily underrepresented in social science research and using multiple

indicators of social participation as well as multiple outcomes. Regarding emotional well-

being, prior studies yielded a mixed picture suggesting that it is probably generalised trust

(i.e., a cognitive dimension of social capital) rather than social participation that has

salutary effects here (Giordano and Lindstrom 2011; Fujiwara and Kawachi 2008;

O’Connor et al. 2011; Yamaoka 2008; Yip et al. 2007). In the present study, we controlled

for generalised trust and a number of other potential confounds and nevertheless found

significant associations between the frequency of joint activities with friends and neigh-

bours (informal participation), volunteer work (formal participation), and emotional well-

being (high positive affect and few depressive symptoms).

While we expected to find the positive effects of social participation on emotional well-

being for theoretical reasons (Berkman et al. 2000), a discrepancy with some of the

previous findings deserves explanation. First, social participation is unlikely to be stressful

in Poland (at least not in a general population-based sample) as the overall economic

situation there is relatively favourable (cf. De Silva et al. 2007; Mitchell and LaGory

2002). Second, prior studies sometimes used covariates which could actually mediate the

effects of social participation on emotional well-being (e.g., mastery; Rose 2000); without

a test of mediation, the effects of social participation could be obscured by such covariates.

Third, divergent findings could be due to different ways of operationalising social par-

ticipation. For instance, we distinguished between membership in voluntary organisations

(which had no significant relationship with emotional well-being) and volunteer work (cf.

Guillen et al. 2011), whereas in many prior studies, only membership was used as an

indicator of formal social participation. Where a distinction had been made, volunteer work

was found to be more beneficial for emotional well-being (Pavlova and Silbereisen 2012),

which might be due to that a mere membership does not imply actual involvement in

Social Participation in Poland

123

organisational activities or that such activities, insofar as no productive work is done, do

not enhance emotional well-being over and above the effects of informal social

participation.

One of the purposes of our study was to juxtapose the effects of formal and informal

social participation in Poland. We hypothesised that informal social participation would

have stronger positive effects on emotional well-being than formal participation as the

latter might be less valued in the Polish society (Centrum Badania Opinii Społecznej

2011). This hypothesis was only partly supported: On the one hand, frequent joint activities

with friends and neighbours were more strongly related to higher positive affect than

volunteer work was. On the other hand, only volunteer work was significantly associated

with fewer depressive symptoms. While informal interactions with friends and acquain-

tances may be more pleasurable than volunteering, which is, after all, a form of work,

volunteering may protect against depressive symptoms better as it provides one with a

meaningful social role and a sense of ‘‘mattering’’ (Berkman et al. 2000; Borgonovi 2008;

Thoits and Hewitt 2001).

Yet another mechanism, social influence, may be responsible for the link between social

participation and health behaviours (Berkman et al. 2000; Ferlander 2007). In particular,

some types of social participation may be conducive to risky alcohol consumption (which

may be especially true in a ‘‘wet’’ culture like Poland; Skog 1985, 1991) whereas others

may be protective against it. Indeed, we found that both joint activities with friends and

neighbours and membership in certain voluntary organisations were related to a heightened

probability of having been really drunk one or multiple times in the past year (cf. Buon-

anno and Vanin 2007; Jukkala et al. 2008); the latter effect pertained mostly to younger

males. In contrast, volunteer work was associated with a lower number of times being

really drunk in the past year, again among the younger participants. In fact, prior studies on

social participation and alcohol consumption have primarily been based on younger age

groups (e.g., Buonanno and Vanin 2007; Theall et al. 2009; Weitzman and Chen 2005).

Young individuals and males are at a particular risk for binge drinking in many countries

(Kuntsche et al. 2004); in Poland, a recent increase in binge drinking rates has been most

pronounced among the young (Czapinski and Panek 2010), which may explain the effects

of social participation on risky alcohol consumption pertaining primarily to these groups.

To sum up, participation in formal and informal social networks, insofar as it does not

involve any productive activities (e.g., volunteer work), seems to be a mixed blessing in

Poland because such participation often involves exposure to a binge drinking culture. In

this regard, our findings corroborate the idea that social participation is not all good

(Berkman et al. 2000; Portes 1998), but it should also be noted that excessive alcohol

consumption is inherent not to social participation as such but to the Polish drinking culture

(Popova et al. 2007).

On balance, volunteer work, infrequent though it may be in Poland, had the best

correlates: higher emotional well-being in the whole sample and less risky alcohol con-

sumption among the younger participants. This finding corresponds to those from studies

conducted in other countries (e.g., Borgonovi 2008; Pavlova and Silbereisen 2012; Theall

et al. 2009; Weitzman and Chen 2005) and suggests that Polish policy makers should not

abandon attempts to foster volunteering—not only for the sake of its direct, intended

outcomes, but also for the sake of its apparent benefits for the volunteers themselves.

The effects of generalised trust, which featured prominently in previous studies, deserve

a separate comment. In our sample, generalised trust had a significant negative effect on

depressive symptoms but no significant relation to positive affect and risky alcohol con-

sumption (nor among the younger participants). In the communist culture of surveillance, a

M. K. Pavlova et al.

123

certain distrust towards not only strangers but also close acquaintances was essential to

survival (Howard 2003). In contrast to volunteering, which is not typical of Poland either

but can hardly be construed as potentially harmful, trusting people in general may still be

widely regarded by Poles as an unwise attitude, especially given that the turbulent tran-

sition to capitalism has produced new sources of distrust. We may therefore speculate that

generalised distrust is so rooted in the Polish mentality that it has little consequence for

health outcomes.

9 Limitations

Our results should be generalised with caution because the sample was not representative

of the whole Poland nor did it strictly represent the population of the provinces where the

data were collected. As we conducted all analyses on weighted data, the latter limitation

was to some extent counterbalanced. Given that this study, to our knowledge, was the first

to present data on the relationship between social participation and health indicators in

Poland, testing these effects with an independent sample drawn from the same population

is very much called for. Furthermore, because of the cross-sectional design, the direction of

effects could not be ascertained and possible self-selection effects were not taken into

account, which was probably the most severe limitation of our findings. For instance, it is

perfectly possible that more cheerful individuals participate in social life more actively.

However, several longitudinal studies showed that social participation predicted emotional

well-being over time (Giordano and Lindstrom 2011; Thoits and Hewitt 2001). Moreover,

the fact that the effects of social participation were controlled for a number of relevant

third variables lent credence to our findings. Besides, an alternative direction of effects

seemed less plausible for risky alcohol consumption, where the role of social pressure,

especially at a younger age, is well known (Kuntsche et al. 2004). Finally, several limi-

tations were related to our measures. For instance, we could not distinguish between

bonding, bridging, and linking social ties (Ferlander 2007) and used a rather imprecise

measure of risky alcohol consumption, which, however, tapped into the binge drinking

pattern typical of Poland and other North European drinking cultures (Popova et al. 2007;

cf. Czapinski and Panek 2010).

10 Conclusions

Both formal (i.e., membership in certain types of voluntary organisations, such as trade

unions and voluntary fire service) and informal (i.e., joint activities with friends and

neighbours) social participation is associated with risky alcohol consumption among Poles,

especially younger males, although informal participation is also linked to higher emo-

tional well-being. Only volunteer work, despite its low prevalence in Poland, yields uni-

formly favourable associations with the variables considered. Thus, the connection

between social participation and health seems to be there, and fostering certain forms of

social participation may be a promising way to enhance emotional well-being and health

behaviours in Poland. Given the relatively low baseline level of social participation, there

seems to be a lot of room for improvement. However, a daunting task for policy makers is

to reform the culture of irregular binge drinking, which permeates many social interactions

in Poland and renders them of questionable value for the mental and physical health of

individuals.

Social Participation in Poland

123

Acknowledgments This study was conducted during the postdoctoral fellowship of the first author at theJena Graduate School ‘‘Human Behaviour in Social and Economic Change’’ (GSBC), which was funded bythe Federal Programme ‘‘ProExzellenz’’ of the Free State of Thuringia. The Jena Study on Social Changeand Human Development (PI: Rainer K. Silbereisen) was funded by the German Research Foundation(DFG) as a subproject of the Collaborative Research Center 580 ‘‘Social Developments in Post-SocialisticSocieties: Discontinuity, Tradition, Structural Formation’’ [SFB580-04-C6]. The project ‘‘Sociological andpsychological determinants of coping with rapid social changes in Poland’’ was funded by the Ministry ofScience and Higher Education (Poland), grant N116 107734. We thank Melanie Ellis and Michał Sitek fortheir useful comments on the manuscript.

References

Adams, K., & Brace, I. (2006). An introduction to market and social research: Planning and using researchtools and techniques. London: Kogan Page.

Almedom, A. M. (2005). Social capital and mental health: An interdisciplinary review of primary evidence.Social Science and Medicine, 61(5), 943–964.

Archiwum Danych Społecznych. (2011). Warunki _zycia społeczenstwa polskiego—Problemy i strategie[Life conditions of Polish society—Problems and strategies]. http://www.ads.org.pl/opis-szczeg.php?id=49. Accessed February 27, 2013.

Bartkowski, J. P., & Xu, X. (2007). Religiosity and teen drug use reconsidered: A social capital perspective.American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 32(6S), S182–S194.

Baum, F. E., & Ziersch, A. M. (2003). Social capital. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health,57(5), 320–323.

Berkman, L. F., Glass, T., Brissette, I., & Seeman, T. E. (2000). From social integration to health: Durkheimin the new millennium. Social Science and Medicine, 51(6), 843–857.

Borgonovi, F. (2008). Doing well by doing good. The relationship between formal volunteering and self-reported health and happiness. Social Science and Medicine, 66(11), 2321–2334.

Bourdieu, P. (1986). The forms of capital. In J. G. Richardson (Ed.), Handbook of theory and research forthe sociology of education (pp. 241–258). New York: Greenwood.

Bullinger, M., & Kirchberger, I. (1998). Der SF-36 Fragebogen zum Gesundheitszustand. Handbuch fur diedeutschsprachige Fragebogenversion [The SF-36 questionnaire on health status. Manual for theGerman version]. Gottingen: Hogrefe.

Buonanno, P., & Vanin, P. (2007). Bowling alone, drinking together. ‘‘Marco Fanno’’ working paper no. 55.http://www.decon.unipd.it/assets/pdf/wp/20070055.pdf. Accessed February 27, 2013.

Centrum Badania Opinii Społecznej. (2011). Młody, bogaty, wykształcony, religijny—Mit polskiego wol-ontariusza [Young, rich, educated, religious—The myth of a Polish volunteer]. http://erw2011.gov.pl/static/upload/komunikat-2.pdf. Accessed February 27, 2013.

Chappell, N. L., & Funk, L. M. (2010). Social capital: Does it add to the health inequalities debate? SocialIndicators Research, 99(3), 357–373.

Cohen, J., Cohen, P., West, S. G., & Aiken, L. S. (2003). Applied multiple regression/correlation analysisfor the behavioral sciences (3rd ed.). Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Coleman, J. S. (1988). Social capital in the creation of human capital. American Journal of Sociology,94(Supplement), S95–S120.

Czapinski, J., & Panek, T. (Eds). (2010). Social diagnosis 2009: The subjective quality and objectiveconditions of life in Poland. http://analizy.mpips.gov.pl/images/stories/publ_i_raporty/Social%20Diagnosis%202009.pdf. Accessed February 27, 2013.

De Silva, M. J., Huttly, S. R., Harpham, T., & Kenward, M. G. (2007). Social capital and mental health: Acomparative analysis of four low income countries. Social Science and Medicine, 64(1), 5–20.

De Silva, M. J., McKenzie, K., Harpham, T., & Huttly, S. R. A. (2005). Social capital and mental illness: Asystematic review. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 59(8), 619–627.

Derogatis, L. R. (1993). Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI): Administration, scoring, and procedures manual(3rd ed.). Minneapolis: National Computer Systems.

Durkheim, E. (1951). Suicide: A study in sociology. Glencoe: Free Press.European Social Survey Data. (2012). http://ess.nsd.uib.no/ess/round5/. Accessed February 27, 2013.Ferlander, S. (2007). The importance of different forms of social capital for health. Acta Sociologica, 50(2),

115–128.Fujiwara, T., & Kawachi, I. (2008). A prospective study of individual-level social capital and major

depression in the United States. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 62(7), 627–633.

M. K. Pavlova et al.

123

Giordano, G. N., & Lindstrom, M. (2011). Social capital and change in psychological health over time.Social Science and Medicine, 72(8), 1219–1227.

Głowny Urzad Statystyczny. (2010). Baza Demografia [Demographic database]. http://demografia.stat.gov.pl/bazademografia/. Accessed February 27, 2013.

Grom, B., Hellmeister, G., & Zwingmann, C. (1998). Munchner Motivationspsychologisches Religiositats-Inventar (MMRI). [Munich Motivational-Psychological Religiousness Inventory]. In: C. Henning & E.Nestler (Eds.), Religion und Religiositat zwischen Theologie und Psychologie. Bad Boller Beitrage zurReligionspsychologie (pp. 181–203). Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.

Guillen, L., Coromina, L., & Saris, W. E. (2011). Measurement of social participation and its place in socialcapital theory. Social Indicators Research, 100(2), 331–350.

Helliwell, J. F., & Putnam, R. D. (2005). The social context of well-being. In F. A. Huppert, N. Baylis, & B.Keverne (Eds.), The science of well-being (pp. 435–459). New York: Oxford University Press.

Howard, M. M. (2003). The weakness of civil society in post-communist Europe. Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press.

Jukkala, T., Makinen, I. H., Kislitsyna, O., Ferlander, S., & Vagero, D. (2008). Economic strain, socialrelations, gender, and binge drinking in Moscow. Social Science and Medicine, 66(3), 663–674.

Kuntsche, E., Rehm, J., & Gmel, G. (2004). Characteristics of binge drinkers in Europe. Social Science andMedicine, 59(1), 113–127.

Mitchell, C. U., & LaGory, M. (2002). Social capital and mental distress in an impoverished community.City and Community, 1(2), 199–222.

Monitoring Public Opinion Unit. (2011). European Parliament Special Eurobarometer 75.2. Voluntary work.http://www.europarl.europa.eu/aboutparliament/en/00191b53ff/Eurobarometer.html?tab=2011_1. Acces-sed February 27, 2013.

Muthen, L. K., & Muthen, B. O. (2010). Mplus user’s guide (6th ed.). http://www.statmodel.com/download/usersguide/Mplus%20Users%20Guide%20v6.pdf. Accessed February 27, 2013.

O’Connor, M., Hawkins, M. T., Toumbourou, J. W., Sanson, A., Letcher, P., & Olsson, C. A. (2011). Therelationship between social capital and depression during the transition to adulthood. AustralianJournal of Psychology, 63(1), 26–35.

Pavlova, M. K., & Silbereisen, R. K. (2012). Participation in voluntary organizations and volunteer work asa compensation for the absence of work or partnership? Evidence from two German samples ofyounger and older adults. The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and SocialSciences, 67(4), 514–524.

Popova, S., Rehm, J., Patra, J., & Zatonski, W. (2007). Comparing alcohol consumption in central andeastern Europe to other European countries. Alcohol and Alcoholism, 42(5), 465–473.

Portes, A. (1998). Social capital: Its origins and applications in modern sociology. Annual Review ofSociology, 24(1), 1–24.

Putnam, R. D. (1993). Making democracy work: Civic traditions in modern Italy. Princeton: PrincetonUniversity Press.

Rose, R. (2000). How much does social capital add to individual health? A survey study of Russians. SocialScience and Medicine, 51(9), 1421–1435.

Saffari, S. E., Adnan, R., & Greene, W. (2011). Handling of over-dispersion of count data via truncationusing Poisson regression model. Journal of Computer Science and Computational Mathematics, 1(1),1–4.

Silbereisen, R. K., Pinquart, M., Reitzle, M., Tomasik, M. J., Fabel, K., & Grumer, S. (2006). Psychosocialresources and coping with social change (SFB-580 reports, Volume 19). http://www.sfb580.uni-jena.de/typo3/uploads/tx_publicationlist/sfb_580_silbereisen_5.pdf. Accessed February 27, 2013.

Skog, O.-J. (1985). The collectivity of drinking cultures: A theory of the distribution of alcohol con-sumption. British Journal of Addiction, 80(1), 83–99.

Skog, O.-J. (1991). Implications of the distribution theory for drinking and alcoholism. In D. J. Pittman & H.Raskin White (Eds.), Society, culture and drinking patterns re-examined (pp. 576–596). NewBrunswick: Rutgers Centre of Alcohol Studies.

Theall, K. P., DeJong, W., Scribner, R., Mason, K., Schneider, S. K., & Simonsen, N. (2009). Social capitalin the college setting: The impact of participation in campus activities on drinking and alcohol-relatedharms. Journal of American College Health, 58(1), 15–23.

Thoits, P. A., & Hewitt, L. N. (2001). Volunteer work and well-being. Journal of Health and SocialBehavior, 42(2), 115–131.

Watson, D., Clark, L. A., & Tellegen, A. (1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positiveand negative affect: The PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54(6),1063–1070.

Social Participation in Poland

123

Weitzman, E. R., & Chen, Y.-Y. (2005). Risk modifying effect of social capital on measures of heavyalcohol consumption, alcohol abuse, harms, and secondhand effects: National survey findings. Journalof Epidemiology and Community Health, 59(4), 303–309.

Winstanley, E. L., Steinwachs, D. M., Ensminger, M. E., Latkin, C. A., Stitzer, M. L., & Olsen, Y. (2008).The association of self-reported neighborhood disorganization and social capital with adolescentalcohol and drug use, dependence, and access to treatment. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 92(1–3),173–182.

World Health Organization. (2005). Mental health atlas. Geneva: World Health Organization.Yamaoka, K. (2008). Social capital and health and well-being in East Asia: A population-based study. Social

Science and Medicine, 66(4), 885–899.Yip, W., Subramanian, S. V., Mitchell, A. D., Lee, D. T. S., Wang, J., & Kawachi, I. (2007). Does social

capital enhance health and well-being? Evidence from rural China. Social Science and Medicine,64(1), 35–49.

M. K. Pavlova et al.

123