Longitudinal Study on the Relationship Between Club Participation Tendency and Subjective Social Capital and Psychological Distress Among University Students

Abstract This study investigated the longitudinal associations among club participation tendency, changes in subjective social capital, and psychological distress in university students. Panel data were collected from students at a private university in Japan, spanning their first to fourth academic years. Latent growth curve modeling yielded four principal findings. First, participation tendency in sports clubs was negatively associated with the slope of psychological distress. Second, increases in subjective social capital were likewise negatively associated with the slope of psychological distress. Third, participation in volunteer clubs, sports clubs, and multiple club types was positively related to the slope of subjective social capital. Fourth, although club participation tendency was significantly associated with changes in subjective social capital, and changes in subjective social capital were significantly associated with changes in psychological distress, the indirect effect via changes in subjective social capital was not statistically significant. This may be partly due to the fact that subjective social capital was not assessed across different relational domains, potentially obscuring domain‐specific pathways linking club participation tendency to psychological distress. These findings suggest that club participation tendency and subjective social capital may be important factors contributing to improvements in psychological adjustment among university students.