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Recent democratic regressions and crises suggest democracy is at risk across East and Southeast Asia. One of the factors that can determine democratic stability are citizens' attitudes. While previous research has concentrated on support for democracy-in-principle, this contribution argues that it is political trust, i.e. support for democracy-in-practice, which is crucial for democratic stability. For democracies to be stable, political trust should be high as well as rooted in long-term factors like liberal democratic value orientations or social trust to protect it from short-term fluctuations following economic crises or political scandals. This contribution therefore examines not only the current levels and development of political trust but also whether it is influenced more by long-term factors (liberal democratic value orientations, social trust) or short-term factors (economic performance evaluations, incumbent support). The empirical analysis shows political trust in five East and Southeast Asian democracies (Indonesia, Japan, Mongolia, South Korea, Taiwan) to be mostly mediocre and primarily dependent on economic performance evaluations and incumbent support. Among the five democracies, citizens in Japan appear most resilient to democratic regressions; on the other hand, Taiwanese democracy seems least equipped to master future crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper empirically investigates the role of social trust in the long-term performance of the initial public offerings (IPOs) in China, controlling for the formal institutional environment. We find that privately owned or smaller IPO firms experience significantly better post-IPO performance when they are incorporated in regions with more social trust. The state-owned and bigger IPO firms, on the other hand, experience better long-term post-IPO performance when they are incorporated in regions with stronger formal institutions (e.g. court enforcement and contract holding). Political pluralism turns out to benefit all IPOs in the long term. In addition, our evidence shows that stronger social trust substitutes for the quality of court enforcement but complements the role of contract holding. These results are robust after controlling for alternative definitions of ownership, outliers, non-linear effects of institutions, and the potential endogeneity of institutions in the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction:Political satisfaction is so important for political systems at the national and international levels that the spread of political dissatisfaction in a society can dismantle the foundations of that system’s legitimacy. Among the factors affecting citizens’ satisfaction as emphasized in various theories, including Robert Putnam’s theory of social capital, the theories of traditional and rational culturalists, and sociologists' theories about religion, is the extent to which the citizens benefit from social capital and religiosity. Extensive political satisfaction, especially if done in an organized manner, prevents indifference, monopoly, and political, social, and cultural alienation. It also reduces political conflicts and social inequality and strengthens national solidarity. Although political satisfaction is a qualitative and mental state at first glance, it is affected by a variety of demographic and socio-economic structures. What is important is to identify the decreasing and increasing factors and also the process of this influence on the citizens’ political satisfaction. Based on the above explanations, the present study aims to evaluate and scientifically explain political satisfaction as a dependent variable and explain the effect of religiosity and social capital as two components affecting the political satisfaction of the citizens of Isfahan province. Reviewing the theoretical and empirical literature, the main hypothesis in this study can be formulated as follows: religiosity affects the citizens’ political satisfaction through the mediating variable of social capital directly and indirectly. Materials and Methods:The present study employed an applied descriptive-analytical research method and survey research approach for testing the hypothesis. The unit of observation and analysis was individual citizens. The statistical population of the study consisted of Isfahan citizens 18 years of age or older. The statistical sample size was 340 among the citizens of Isfahan province. To test the reliability of the research instrument and the generalizability of the results of the sample, 5% was added to the statistical sample and a sample of 395 people was considered. The present study used a cluster random sampling method for selecting the participants.Regarding the indirect effect of religiosity on political satisfaction through the baseline variables of social capital, the method of Preacher and Hayes (2008) was used. Accordingly, the coefficient of determination of the research model was 0.32. Also, the value of F 46.70 and the significance level of 0.00 showed that the research model has a favorable explanatory capability. Discussion of Results and Conclusions:Descriptive statistics showed that 180 participants were men and 215 were women, which made the sample more random. Among the selected participants, 203 of them were single and 192 were married. In the field of education, about 46.3% of the participants were at the undergraduate level and the average age of the respondents was 24.5 years. In terms of employment status, 224 (56.7%) of them were government officials. Therefore, the indicator in this variable was the job status. In the income ranking, income levels below 3 million Tomans per month had the highest frequency (44%) and income levels above 10 million Tomans per month had the lowest frequency (2.5%) among respondents.According to the research experimental findings, the citizens’ level of political satisfaction was at an average level (65.81%), lower than the expected average. Political satisfaction was measured at the three levels of political agents, political institutions, and rules and procedures of the system. In all three cases, the results were lower than the average. The average of political satisfaction in terms of rules and procedures (40.50%) was relatively higher than the other two dimensions, namely political activists (12.28%) and political institutions (13.03%). Also, based on the findings, social capital had a significant relationship with political satisfaction. In other words, with the increase of social capital among citizens, their level of political satisfaction also increased.The results of the study also showed that the variable of social capital in the two dimensions of social trust and social participation had a direct and significant relationship with political satisfaction as a general structure. As the findings indicated, religiosity also had a significant relationship with political satisfaction. This means that with increasing religiosity among citizens, their level of political satisfaction also increased. In addition, the variable of religiosity had a direct and significant relationship with political satisfaction as a general structure. The ritual and emotional dimensions of religiosity increased political satisfaction among the citizens, which can be the reason for the effect of the citizens’ presence in Muharram ceremonies, mourning delegations, and mass ceremonies such as Friday prayers, congregational prayers, etc. It seems that not only a religious government but also the participatory content of Islam and its teachings based on emphasizing people's participation in social and political activities and condemning indifference in social and political issues related to society and government were effective in this regard.

Economic games are well-established tools that offer a convenient approach to study social behaviour. Although widely used, recent evidence suggests that decisions made in the context of standard economic games are less predictive of real-world behaviour than previously assumed. A possible explanation for this discrepancy is that economic games decisions in the laboratory are more likely to be influenced by the current situation, while questionnaires are specifically designed to measure people's average behaviour across a long period of time. To test this hypothesis, we performed a longitudinal study where 275 respondents played 16 Trust games every two days within a three-week period, and filled out a questionnaire that measures social trust. This study confirmed the instability of our measure of trust behaviour over time and the substantial stability of questionnaire responses. However, we found a significant association between self-reported social trust and participants' average behaviour in the trust game measured across sessions, but also with participants' behaviour measured only in Session 1. Nevertheless, analysis of behavioural changes in the Trust games over time revealed different behavioural profiles, highlighting how economic games and questionnaires can complement each other in the study of social trust.

BackgroundDespite much attention paid to the mental health of left-behind children, there has not been sufficient research on whether and how left-behind experiences have long-term effects on adults among the general population. This paper aims to evaluate the long-term effects of left-behind experience on adult psychological depression.MethodsBy using the China Labor-force Dynamics Survey in 2018 (CLDS 2018), we assessed depression by the Center for Epidemiological Studies, Depression Scale (CES-D) and used a cut-off score of 20 for detecting depression (Yes = 1, No = 0). The Binomial logistic regression was used to compare the odds ratio across groups. We used the KHB method in the mediation analysis, to measure the indirect effect of social trust on the relationship between left-behind experience and depression.ResultsThe rate of depression (χ2 = 17.94, p < 0.001) for the children who have left-behind experience (LBE) (10.87%) was higher than the children who have non-left-behind experience (N-LBE) (6.37%). The rate of social trust (χ2 = 27.51, p < 0.001) of LBE (65.70%) was lower than N-LBE (75.05%). Compared with the other three groups, left-behind experience occurred in preschool (OR = 2.07, p < 0.001, 95% CI = [1.45, 2.97]) was more likely to suffer from depression. The indirect effect of social trust (OR = 1.06, p < 0.01, 95% CI = [1.02, 1.10]) is significantly on the relationship between LBE and psychological depression, with the total effect (OR = 1.71, p < 0.001, 95% CI = [1.27, 2.31]) and direct effect (OR = 1.62, p < 0.01, 95% CI = [1.20, 2.18]) are both significantly. The proportion of indirect effect in the total effect is 10.69%.ConclusionThe left-behind experience that occurred in childhood has a significantly negative effect on adult psychological depression, in which preschool left-behind experience played the most critical role. Social trust is the mediating factor associated with left-behind experience and psychological depression. To mitigate the long-term effects of the left-behind experience on psychological depression, parents need to be prudent about the decision-making of migration in the preschool stage of their children. and subsequent policies should strengthen social work targeting vulnerable youth groups especially those with left-behind experience at an early age in terms of their psychological depression.

The progress and development of society in every sense is possible by raising healthy individuals. To do so, it is necessary to ensure the physical and mental development of children in a healthy way. There are many variables that affect the physical and mental development of children. These variables are affected by individual factors, social structure, social interactions and cultural values. In addition, when these factors interact with each other, their effect on behavior and well-being may increase. Undoubtedly, one of the primary factors negatively affecting a child’s physical and psychological development is the adverse economic conditions and hardships experienced by his/her family and consequently, by the child. Increasing poverty hinders children’s access to resources, and thus negatively affects their mental health as well as their physical development. Furthermore, positive economic conditions pave the way for an improved environment, better nutrition, higher-quality education, elevated social status, more friends, reduced feelings of loneliness, and increased social support and trust and all of these positively contribute to psychological well-being. Therefore, based on the conviction that early interventions can be protective and screening is needed to determine the proper intervention, this study aims to investigate the relationship between psychological well-being, loneliness, social support and social trust, all of which affect the psychological health of children living in economically disadvantaged families. To this end, answers to the following questions were sought. Is there a significant relationship between the loneliness, social support, social trust and psychological well-being of the children from low-income families? Do the feelings of loneliness, social support and social trust of the children from low-income families significantly predict their psychological well-being?

This study discusses the mechanism of social trust and legal institutions and their impact on farmers’ contract selection in the farmland transfer market from the perspective of contract governance. Using data from a survey of 128 villages in Heilongjiang, Henan, Zhejiang, and Sichuan provinces, this study empirically tests the impact of social trust and legal institutions on the binding force of contracts, and the proportions of paper and long-term contracts in the farmland transfer market. The results showcase, first, that improvement in social trust and legal institutions can strengthen the binding force of farmland contracts. The strength of legal institutions, as embodied in regulation files and execution, and of social trust, as embodied in village neighborhood relations and loan relations, have significant positive impacts on the binding force of contracts in the farmland transfer market. Second, the binding force of contracts positively impacts both paper and long-term contracts in the farmland transfer market. Whether contract execution or dispute resolution rates are selected as the proxy variables for the binding force of contracts, the stronger the contract binding force, the higher the proportion of both paper and long-term contracts in the farmland transfer market. Therefore, improving formal and informal social systems to enhance contractual binding force is of great importance in standardizing contracts and improving the efficiency of market resource allocation.

The brutal wars in Iraq, Syria and now Ukraine have caused a massive influx of refugees to Europe. Turkey alone has received more than 4.8 million refugees. An important precondition for their economic and social incorporation is trust: refugees need to trust the citizens as well as the state and the justice system to find their place in the host country. Yet refugees' propensity to trust may be affected by cultural differences between their home and host countries, their personal conflict exposure and the experiences they had on the run. This study investigates how individual differences in exposure to armed conflict and institutional breakdown shape two types of trust among refugees: Generalized social trust and trust in the institutions of the settlement country. We survey a large and diverse sample of refugees from Syria and Iraq living in Turkish communities and deploy well-established measures of conflict exposure, posttraumatic stress, and posttraumatic growth. We find that higher degrees of conflict exposure are positively related to social trust, and to trust in courts and the police. These positive findings are largely driven by refugees who had very personal and emotionally powerful experiences. The psychological mechanism of posttraumatic growth cannot explain these findings, however, suggesting positive experiences of cooperation in the midst of war and displacement are potentially a better explanation for this finding than positive psychological changes resulting from trauma. At the same time, conflict exposure is negatively related to trust in political institutions. Posttraumatic stress may be the mechanism behind this result. We discuss the implications of these findings for the integration of war refugees--a topic that is tragically of great relevance today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The negative linkage between income inequality and social trust is widely acknowledged. Despite this consensus, it remains unclear at what level of aggregation income inequality matters most to the cultivation of social trust. In a comprehensive review, Wilkinson and Pickett (Annu Rev Sociol 35:493–511, 2009) speculate that income inequality is most important when measured at the societal level, whereas for lower units of aggregation economic development becomes a stronger predictor. Merging regional inequality data for 216 regions in 22 European countries (2010–2014) to the European Social Survey, this paper is the first to examine this claim for social trust. The results demonstrate that in non-Eastern European countries most of the variation in social trust is accounted for by differences in inequality between countries rather than differences in inequality within countries. For economic development, the opposite is true. Within-country differences in economic development relate significantly to social trust, while between-country differences do not. I conclude that social trust is more strongly affected by the stratification of society as a whole than by income inequalities within smaller units of aggregation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This study investigates the effects of charitable giving on the life satisfaction of older Korean adults, examining the moderating role of relationship satisfaction and social trust, as the indicators for social capital. Methods: Nationally representative sample of individuals aged 65 to100 (N = 8,359) from the 2019 Social Survey was used for the analyses. Results: The results from Coarsened Exact Matching and Structural Equation Modeling show that charitable giving positively affects older Korean adults' life satisfaction. Moreover, the results of moderation analyses suggest that the effects of charitable giving on life satisfaction are stronger for those with lower levels of relationship satisfaction and social trust. Discussion: The results imply that social capital, such as relationship satisfaction or social trust, needs to be taken into consideration when exploring the effects of charitable giving in later life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Extant literature on civic participation in Western democracies demonstrates a linear relationship between increased civic participation and a stronger democracy. In general, the scholarly debate revolves around the precise causal mechanisms for this relationship: holding government accountable; citizens learning "democratic skills", such as collective mobilization and advocacy; and, building social capital and trust to overcome the dilemma of collective action. Given rapidly increasing volunteerism in China, this study tests these theories in a single-party authoritarian system using evidence from the 2020 Civic Participation in China Survey. The study finds that volunteers in China do learn "citizen skills"; however, these differ from those learned by volunteers in democracies. Foremost, while volunteering allows for authoritarian citizens to learn and differentiate channels most appropriate for addressing specific social problems, they generally do not try to directly hold their government accountable for poor performance. Additionally, the study finds limited support that volunteers are seeking to develop trust in other citizens, contra evidence from Western democracies. Finally, the results suggest that volunteers are participating as a means to send signals to the state that they are emerging local community leaders. These findings have important implications for increasing civic participation in authoritarian regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Communities are responsible for a range of public services and represent critical experiential contexts for social interactions between residents. However, the role of local governance and public service provision for creating social trust has received limited attention so far. This study examines how quality, efficiency and fairness of local public service provision relates to social trust. Using multilevel models on repeated cross-sectional survey data from the Quality of Life in European Cities project, we test the relationship between time-varying city-level indicators of quality of local government and social trust. The empirical results show that an increase in the dimension of local public service quality is substantially associated with an increase in social trust. We find improvements in sport and leisure facilities as well as the state of public spaces, streets and buildings to be particularly relevant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the concept of "open data" has received increasing attention among data providers and publishers. For some data portals in public sectors, such as data.gov, the openness enables public oversight of governmental proceedings. For many other data portals, especially those in academia, open data has shown its potential for driving new scientific discoveries and creating opportunities for multidisciplinary collaboration. While the number of open data portals and the volume of shared data have increased significantly, most open data portals still use keywords and faceted models as their primary methods for data search and discovery. There should be opportunities to incorporate more intelligent functions to facilitate the data flow between data portals and end-users. To find more theoretical and empirical evidence for that proposition, in this paper, we conduct a systematic literature review of open data, social trust, and recommender systems to explain the fundamental concepts and illustrate the potential of using trust-based recommender systems for open data portals. We hope this literature review can benefit practitioners in the field of open data and facilitate the discussion of future work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research explores critical factors impacting e-commerce adoption at the country-level. Due to the steady growth in e-commerce trade volumes in recent years, governments of many countries are focused on improving their share in the overall global trade. Therefore, it is crucial to examine the important drivers of e-commerce adoption at a country level rather than just individual and organizational levels. In addition to social trust, the model presented includes technological, governmental, and cultural factors as antecedents of the e-commerce adoption. Secondary data from seventy countries are collected to empirically evaluate the hypotheses presented among the factors of the research model. The hypotheses are assessed using PLS analytical procedures. We found that connectivity and technological efficacy directly influence e-commerce. We also found that legal environment and connectivity impact social trust which in its turn affects uncertainty avoidance. Our results are very important for decision makers. According to the results of our study, policy makers need to consider their country's institutional, technological, and cultural environments. We discuss the implications of our results for researchers and practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South Africa remains an unequal society even after almost three decades of ending apartheid. This has put the country in the limelight of the discourse on racism and its enduring effects. This article represents a contribution to the literature on the effects of racism in South Africa as it particularly affects the Black population group. Social inequality during and after apartheid is examined with a highlight of the legal devices that were used to entrench racial discrimination among the citizens of the country. The enduring social inequality for Blacks was emphasised through national survey research that has consistently over the years shown this group to be disproportionately affected. The authors then interrogated using a psychological lens the effects that racial inequality could have on three behavioural outcomes; aggression, crime and social trust for Blacks. These variables were examined in the context of social inequality as a push factor for their manifestations. Lastly, the authors conclude on the importance of providing a forum to uncover and address the trauma of the apartheid era on Blacks. Furthermore, the importance of addressing the socio-economic inequality experienced by Blacks to ensure their wellbeing and capacity for self-restraint from social deviancy was emphasised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated how university students in Pacific Island contexts coped with the shift to remote learning caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The researchers aimed to investigate the social capital of a group of Pasifika university students in Fiji, New Zealand and Solomon Islands universities during COVID-19 and how they coped with the rapid shift to remote learning. Social capital refers to building relationships and networks to deal with collective issues in the present and future. The researchers used tokstori to collect data from Solomon Islands students and talanoa in New Zealand. Sixteen Solomon Islanders participated in tokstoris and ongoing Pasifika students' talanoa and faikava (kava consumption) to share concerns and challenges to their academic studies and lives. Deductive in nature, the analysis found that communication with fellow students, often via digital media, and interaction with supportive staff helped their success. Furthermore, getting in touch with the family and following COVID-19 protective practices helped students adjust positively. Being able to 'tap' the social resources within these spaces helped build perseverance, resilience and strong social capital. The research findings show the importance of individuals, student communities and institutions consciously strengthening social networks among students during a crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The association between social trust and long‐run economic growth is well documented. However, which determinants of growth are affected by social trust remains an open question. This paper therefore explores to which extent social trust affects the rate of factor accumulation versus productivity improvements. Previous studies indicate that social trust could affect both the accumulation of physical and human capital and the rate of productivity increases. Existing literature also indicates that part of the growth effects may be due to how trust affects the quality of formal institutions. The effects of trust are estimated in a panel of 64 countries observed in 5‐year periods between 1977 and 2017, using growth accounting to separate patterns of growth. The results unequivocally show that social trust predominantly affects long‐run growth by affecting the growth of productivity and that only a small share of that effect runs through the effects of trust on formal institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Social capital is a complex and multi-dimensional construct and concept, and it implies a phenomenon that the main source of its creation is the sphere of social interaction. Social capital can be considered as the sources that has been created as a result of social relationships in the past, and at the present time, it facilitates collective action. In this study, we seek to describe the status of social capital, based on the four main constituent components: social trust, social relations network, social participation, and social norms in Iran, in 2014-2015 (1393). Method: This research is a quantitative-descriptive study that was conducted through survey questionnaires in a cross-sectional study in December 2014 and January 2015 (Azar and Dey 1393). The population of the study includes people aged 15 years and older living in the urban and rural areas of Iran. In this research, by systematic random sampling and cluster sampling, 37,200 people were selected as sample from all over the country. Findings: The findings showed that the Iranians are more likely to trust the individuals and groups closest to themselves; they participate more in the collective activities within these groups; and if needed, they provide more social support to these people. Discussion: It can be concluded in this that the status of bonding social capital (within a group) and bridging social capital (between groups) in Iran is different, and people have more bonding social capital than bridging social capital. According to this result, strengthening social capital, especially in the dimension of association relations, social participation, strengthening civic institutions, and motivating civic activists, which can increase the bridging social capital in society, is recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The purpose of this study is to investigate the meta-analysis of published articles on the factors affecting suicide. Method: From 15 selected studies, appropriate statistics were recorded to calculate the effect size together with other required data and using CMA2 software, the effect size was calculated and hypotheses were analyzed. Findings: The results of the present study show that in total independent variables identifying suicide has been effective. The value of the combined effect is 0660 (d = 0660), which is also statistically significant. Since this value is in the range of 0.8 to 0.5, it is considered moderate according to the Cohen's classification. The results also show that the mean size of r related to studies that had theoretical foundations was EsrQ = 0.30 and in studies that lacked theoretical foundations was equivalent to ESrQ = 0.20. The results of the z-r difference test in the aforementioned study were 4.99. Discussion: The findings of the study show that there is a significant difference between the size of the effects obtained. Variables such as having a theoretical basis, level of gender, marriage, self-esteem, family cohesion, early marriage, anxiety, family economic status, had a statistically significant effect on suicide. Part of the research findings indicate that in the social categories, the variable of early marriage has the highest relationship with suicidal tendencies with an effect size of 0.3721, in the psychological aspects of self-esteem research has the highest relationship with suicide with an effect size of 0.6216. To fight against suicide, one should consider increasing self-esteem, conscious marriage, and family cohesion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Perhaps for the first time in its history, the Ukrainian scientific community is at the epicenter of large-scale geopolitical changes, and undoubtedly for the first time, the Ukrainian people are uniting advanced democratic forces around themselves. The unpredictable behavior of social systems after reaching a threshold level of socio-political energy within the system is called social turbulence. The article investigates Social Turbulence as the Scientific Phenomenon, as well as Operational and Strategic Change, resulting from the analysis of current events. The Ukrainian people's war for their independence is a key factor causing political dissent in the functioning social system. It is the energy of political dissent of Ukrainians that causes social turbulence and, as a result, the change of the governing "world elite" and the reform of global institutions. The proposals of the "world leaders" Trump, Schröder and others to "cede" the territories of the Crimean Peninsula and Donbas in exchange for imaginary security guarantees from Russia demonstrate the true "effectiveness" of the existing security system and its unwillingness to withstand global challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on signaling theory, we explore the impact of corporate fraud on firms' innovation performance. First, we propose that corporate fraud harms firms' innovation performance. This is because, as a negative signal, fraud makes it difficult for firms to obtain the policy, funding, and human resources needed for outstanding innovation performance. We further argue that the institutional aspects of the signaling environment (e.g., industrial competition, regional institutional development, and social trust) will influence core stakeholders' reception and interpretation of fraud signals. These factors, in turn, moderate the signaling effect of corporate fraud on firms' innovation performance. Our views are supported by empirical and robustness tests using Chinese A‐share listed firms from 2010 to 2019. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consequences of social trust are comparatively well studied, while its societal determinants are often subject to debate. This paper studies both in the context of Catalan attempts to secede from Spain: First, we test whether Catalonia enjoys higher levels of social capital that it is prevented from capitalizing on. Second, the paper examines whether secessionist movements create animosity and political divisions within society that undermine trust. Employing the nine available waves of the European Social Survey for Spain, we only find weak indications that social trust levels are higher in Catalonia than in the rest of the country. Interestingly, we further find testimony of a purely transient "exuberance effect" after secession became a real option, indicating that the long‐run evolution of social trust may best be thought of as a stable punctuated equilibrium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parental illness or death due to HIV/AIDS has long-term impacts on children's social well-being, potentially challenging the children's basic developmental needs and future. Based on the theoretical model of social well-being, the present study tested a moderated mediation model that HIV-related stigma moderated the mediating role of social trust on the relationship between perceived social support (PSS) and social wellbeing. A sample of 297 youths aged 20-30 years affected by parental HIV/AIDS (57.2% male), including 129 (43.40%) AIDS orphans and 168 vulnerable youths (56.60%) completed questionnaires of perceived social support, social well-being, social trust, and HIV-related stigma. IBM SPSS 25.0 was used to conduct descriptive statistics and multiple regressions. Results showed that the mean score of PSS was 61.34 (SD = 13.99), social well-being was 57.33 (SD = 10.15), social trust was 56.21 (SD = 11.55), perceived stigma was 64.44 (SD = 16.72), and enacted stigma was 21.91 (SD = 9.73) among youths affected by parental HIV/AIDS and the PSS could predict increasing social well-being via increasing social trust. Moreover, the positive influence of PSS on social trust was moderated by the enacted stigma (p = 0.03), in which the positive influence was stronger among youths affected by parental HIV/AIDS who perceived or experienced low enacted stigma than those who perceived or experienced high enacted stigma. The positive impact of social trust on social wellbeing was moderated by perceived stigma (p = 0.04), in which the positive impact was more significant among youths affected by parental HIV/AIDS who perceived or experienced high perceived stigma than those who perceived or experienced low perceived stigma. These findings explained how and when the PSS affected social wellbeing and contributed toward an understanding of the experiences and perceptions of HIV-related stigma among youths affected by parental HIV/AIDS. This understanding may inform future research and policies toward improving the social well-being of youths affected by parental HIV/AIDS. The study also highlighted the importance of strengthening interventions on social relations and reducing HIV-related stigma for them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a sample of companies listed in the Chinese stock market between 2007 and 2019, this article investigates the effect of social trust on analysts' forecasts. Our results show that regional social trust can lower analysts' forecast errors and analysts' forecast dispersion, that is, it improves analysts' forecast quality. The institutional environment and state-owned property exacerbate these positive effects. Furthermore, the role of social trust in improving the quality of analysts' forecasts is more significant in listed companies with a poor information environment. We also find that social trust improves analysts' forecast quality by improving earnings quality. After some robustness tests, our main conclusions are still valid. Overall, the findings reveal social trust affects analyst's forecasts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A core assumption often heard in public health discourse is that increasing trust in national political leaders is essential for securing public health compliance during crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic (2019–ongoing). However, studies of national government trust are typically too coarse-grained to differentiate between trust in institutions versus more interpersonal trust in political leaders. Here, we present multiscale trust measurements for twelve countries and territories across the West, Oceania and East Asia. These trust results were used to identify which specific domains of government and social trust were most crucial for securing public health compliance (frequency of mask wearing and social distancing) and understanding the reasons for following health measures (belief in effectiveness of public health measures). Through the use of linear regression and structural equation modeling, our cross-cultural survey-based analysis (N = 3369 subjects) revealed that higher trust in national and local public health institutions was a universally consistent predictor of public health compliance, while trust in national political leaders was not predictive of compliance across cultures and geographical regions. Institutional trust was mediated by multiple types of transparency, including providing rationale, securing public feedback, and honestly expressing uncertainty. These results highlight the importance of distinguishing between components of government trust, to better understand which entities the public gives the most attention to during crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exchange theory suggests that social unfairness, including conflict and inequality experienced locally at both personal and neighbourhood levels, reduces social trust generally. To test these uncharted suggestions, the present study analysed two‐wave panel survey data on a representative national sample of 25,618 Chinese adults. Results demonstrated that higher social unfairness experienced personally in 2010 significantly predicted lower social trust in 2014. Neighbourhood social unfairness, which was the average of social unfairness experienced in neighbourhood residents, was also negatively predictive of social trust at neighbourhood and thus personal levels. This supports the extension of exchange theory from the personal level to the neighbourhood level. Results imply the relevance of social unfairness at both personal and neighbourhood levels to social trust in China. They also imply the significance of personal and collective interests in exchange theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inspired by the promising potentialof reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-based transmission, this paper investigates the RIS-aided vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication system with the social trust, where multiple vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) links share the spectrum with vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) links. Subject to the reliability constraint of V2V links, the sum V2I link capacity is maximized, through jointly optimizing the power allocation, RIS reflection coefficients and spectrum allocation. The formulated mix-integer and non-convex problem is effectively converted into three subproblems, which can be iteratively solved by our proposed three-stage joint resource allocation and RIS optimization (JRARO) algorithm. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, and that the RIS can significantly improve the quality of vehicular communications in terms of the sum V2I capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing occurrence of diseases across geographical borders creates a need to understand how information source preferences and trust in those sources influence risk perception across contexts. However, cross-context studies about information sources are not common in health communication and promotion scholarship. Using a survey, the research team compared how information sources, perceived usefulness of Ebola information, interpersonal and social trust and context influence risk perception and self-efficacy in an Ebola-affected (Liberia) and -unaffected (Ghana) country. Respondents from the unaffected country trusted the information they received significantly more and had higher levels of interpersonal and social trust than respondents from the affected country. These findings reinforce the use of community health workers as channels to support behavior and social change-focused programs, particularly in crisis situations, in addition to other information channels and sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]