Cross‐cultural adaptation and psychometric properties of the Social Capital Questionnaire for Adolescent Students among preadolescents and adolescents in Japan

Field: Psychology (Social Sciences)

Social capital, although differently conceptualized by experts, generally comprises community cohesion, reciprocity, and trust.1 Social capital can be divided into cognitive and structural social capital. 'Cognitive social capital' refers to the values, attitudes, and beliefs that produce cooperative behavior, while 'structural social capital' pertains to roles, rules, precedents, behaviors, networks, and institutions. Social capital is considered an important social determinant of health, and its potential role in and contribution to individuals' physical and mental health have been extensively studied.2, 3 A growing body of research has indicated an increase in mental-health-related problems among adolescents. The robustness of these findings in studies examining the associations between social capital and mental health4, 5 is limited due to the use of single-item questions measuring social capital in existing research.6, 7 To overcome this challenge and advance social capital research in the area of adolescent mental health and well-being, the development of theoretically and statistically well-constructed social capital measurements is highly crucial. However, no such scales have been available in Japan. Therefore, in the present study, the authors investigated the cultural adaptation and psychometric properties of the Social Capital Questionnaire for Adolescent Students (SCQ-AS)8 among Japanese students. The SCQ-AS is a self-rating 12-item questionnaire developed by researchers in Brazil.8 The items of the SCQ-AS and details about its scale development study (reliability, factor structure) are listed in Appendices S1 and S2. We performed forward-translation and back-translation of the SCQ-AS and the back-translated version was carefully examined by one of the original developers of the SCQ-AS (Dr Zarzar), who confirmed the semantic and conceptual equivalence between the original and the Japanese versions (please see Appendix S3 for the details about the cultural adaptation process). Thereafter, we conducted a community-based survey in September 2018 targeting children between 4th and 9th grades in national public elementary and junior high schools in Hirosaki City, Japan. We distributed 8184 sets of the Japanese version of the SCQ-AS (J-SCQ-AS) to the corresponding schools. Students were briefed about the purpose of the survey and completed the questionnaire in the classroom, among which a total of 7856 children (3963 male [50.4%] and 3893 female [49.6%]) who answered at least one of the SCQ-AS items were included for the data analyses (see Appendix S4 for characteristics of participants). The protocol of the current study was approved by the Committee on Medical Ethics of Hirosaki University (IRB# 2015-055). The current study was conducted in accordance with the ethical standards laid down in the 1964 Declaration Helsinki and its later amendments. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) with weighted-least-squares means and variance-adjusted estimation9 revealed that the four-factor model proposed by the developers of the SCQ-AS did not fit well with the current data obtained from Japanese students (fit indices: root-mean-square error of approximation [RMSEA] = 0.098, comparative fit index [CFI] = 0.93). Therefore, to search for the best fit model of factor structures of the J-SCQ-AS across all participating adolescents, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) with varimax rotation was conducted, where the three-factor model demonstrated good fit indices (RMSEA = 0.04, standardized-root-mean square residual = 0.03) with loadings on component shown in Table 1: Factor 1, 'School trust and social cohesion' (eight items); Factor 2, 'Perceived safety in school/neighborhood' (two items); and Factor 3, 'Neighborhood trust and social cohesion' (two items). To determine if this three-factor model remained valid across two groups (the elementary school group and the junior high school group), the CFA was conducted, revealing good fit indices in both groups (elementary school group: CFI = 0.98, RMSEA = 0.42; junior high school group: CFI = 0.98, RMSEA = 0.66; Appendix S5). The detailed analytic plan and results from CFA and EFA are summarized in Appendix S6. (11) My neighbors would try to take advantage of me. (R) (12) My classmates would try to take advantage of me. (R) Additionally, the internal consistency of the three factors of the J-SCQ-AS varied from 0.72 to 0.81. The internal consistency of the entire J-SCQ-AS using Cronbach's alpha was also satisfactory (α = 0.84). In sum, the present study showed that the Japanese version of the SCQ-AS is a reliable scale for measuring social capital among adolescent students and that the cognitive social capital of adolescent students can be well captured under its three-factor model ('School trust and social cohesion,' 'Perceived safety in school/neighborhood,' and 'Neighborhood trust and social cohesion'). Although the study limitations cannot be ignored (e.g., no socioeconomic data being available), there are several strengths in the present study, including a much larger sample than that in the original scale development study (n = 101), participants with a broader age range, and high participation rate (96.4%). The use of this scale will allow researchers to investigate the associations between social capital and variables related to both physical and mental health, such as social–emotional challenges, behavioral problems, and well-being of children and adolescents in more quantitative and nuanced ways. We thank Dr Reiko Homma and Dr Patricia Zarzar for the back-translation work and for the expert opinion on the J-SCQ-AS to confirm its semantic and conceptual equivalence with the original SCQ-AS, respectively. We also express our gratitude to students who participated in the present study and teachers who assisted us in conducting the survey at each school. This research was financially supported by the Hirosaki Institute of Neuroscience in Japan (K.N.), Hirosaki University Institutional Research Grant (K.N.), and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) KAKENHI, grant number 19K08008 (T.H.). This study was conducted in collaboration with Hirosaki City and Kodomo Minna Project commissioned by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. Kodomo Minna Project provided no financial support to this study. The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.