Associations between social capital and other living conditions among young Angolan women: A cross-sectional study in three provinces

Social support systems play a crucial role in promoting young womens well-being and their human rights fulfilment, not least in contexts where institutions are weak and socioeconomic and gender inequalities prevail. However, research on young womens social networks and trust in their benevolent function is scarce. This study attempts to reduce this knowledge gap by exploring young Angolan womens access to social capital and how it clustered and was associated with other living conditions. The data were derived from a cross-sectional study of 2,071 women, aged 18-24 years, from rural and urban areas in Huambo, Luanda and Lunda Sul provinces. The results included a univariate description of the participants socioeconomic and social capital characteristics stratified by province and residential area, an exploratory factor analysis of 17 social capital variables, and tests for associations between social capital factors and socioeconomic variables (literacy, household wealth, work and pregnancy), the latter measured by means of logistic regressions. The study revealed that the women in Luanda had generally better living conditions, those from Lunda Sul were worse off, and those from Huambo were often in between. The factor analysis identification of structural, cognitive, and applied factors aligned well with established research. Literate and wealthier participants often had higher structural but less cognitive social capital. Social capital measures showed less variability compared to literacy and household wealth. The social capital factors were distributed and associated differently with the socioeconomic attributes based on location. The study highlights the intricate relationship between social capital and other living conditions, conditional on where women live. It draws attention to the need for further investigations into which social spheres young women perceive as supportive. The study emphasises the importance of analysing social capital domains separately, appreciating links to other resources and local uniqueness in social capital-enhancing interventions.