Does Caregiver's social bonding enhance the health of their children? The association between social capital and child behaviors

Little is known about the association between social capital and child behaviors. This study aims to investigate that association A complete population-based, cross-sectional survey was conducted for all the caregivers with preschool children in a rural town in Okayama prefecture in Japan. Two dimensions of individual-level social capital and unhealthy child behaviors were reported by parent-administered questionnaire. We analyzed 354 preschool children (57.6% of all children for whom questionnaires were completed). Children whose main caregiver had high cognitive social capital were 89% less likely to miss breakfast (odds ratio [OR] =0.11; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.01-1.03). Children whose caregiver had high structural social capital were 71 % less likely to wake up late (OR = 0.29; 95% CI: 0.120.71) and 78% less likely to skip tooth brushing more than once per day (OR = 0.22; 95% CI: 0.05-0.93). Both cognitive and structural social capital were negatively associated with unhealthy child behaviors. A further intervention study is needed to confirm the impact of social capital on child behavior.