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Reciprocity, a core component of social capital, is rarely theorized or measured leaving the relationship between reciprocity and health ambiguous. Historically, reciprocity measures have not been used in the context they were designed causing measurement error. This multi-phased study was designed to develop and validate a reciprocity measure for formal and informal groups within communities and congregations as part of a more comprehensive social capital measure. In-depth interviews ( n = 72), cognitive interviews ( n = 40), and an expert review panel guided item development and selection for content validity. South Carolina residents ( n = 500) completed the 10-item Reciprocity of Social Support (RSS) Scale during 2008-2010. Construct validity was supported through an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) that confirmed a two-factor model for the scale for community- and congregation-based groups. Cronbach's α values indicated items were highly correlated for community groups and church groups. Psychometric analyses of the RSS Scale support convergent and divergent validity for the community- and congregation-based groups. Mean RSS Scale scores were not statistically different between community- and congregation-based groups. This scale has proven psychometric properties for utilization in future research investigating reciprocity of social support in community- and congregation-based groups and will be useful to examine whether reciprocity (by context and type of group) is associated with physical and/or mental health.

Aim: Empirical evidence has linked social contacts with mental stability. The aim is to assess how social contacts are associated with depression among the general population. Methods: We analysed the data of 5,681 adults aged 40 or older, who completed a depression screening as a part of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2005–2008. Depression was ascertained using the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ), a nine-item screening instrument asking about the frequency of depression symptoms over the past two weeks. A PHQ score of 10 or higher was defined as depression. Results: The prevalence of depression was 5.54% (SE = 0.64) and 8.49% (SE = 0.71), respectively, among men and women. The association between social contacts and depression were more salient among men than women. The odds ratios (ORs) of depression were 2.43 (95% CI = 1.44−4.10), 2.42 (95% CI = 1.37−4.28), 1.00 (reference) and 1.94 (95% CI = 0.80−4.71), respectively, among men who never attended church, attended occasionally, weekly and more than weekly. The corresponding ORs were 1.79 (95% CI = 1.10−2.91), 1.72 (95% CI = 1.06−2.80), 1.00(reference) and 0.98 (95% CI = 0.52−1.84) for women. Compared with the respondents who had 10 or more friends, the ORs of depression were 4.01 (95% CI = 1.89−8.50) and 1.86 (95% CI = 0.92−3.79), respectively, for men and women who had no close friends. Conclusions: The current study concluded that traditional social contacts remain strongly associated with depression in the digital era. Digital social networking is one of the biggest growing industries, creating a new platform to make social contacts. There is an urgent need to explore how to maximize the potential of digital social networking to strengthen social bonds while minimizing its negative effects.