The present study examines the associations between multiple measures of social trust and two outcomes of psychological wellbeing (happiness and depression) among South Korean adults (n = 1549) living in residential communities, that is, administrative districts (n = 77) in and around the capital city of Seoul. Based on multilevel modeling, we find that familial trust positively predicts happiness at both individual and contextual levels; and it negatively predicts depression at the individual level only. In comparison, peer trust is negatively related only to depression at the individual level, albeit marginally. Lastly, general trust significantly predicts both outcomes at the community, but not individual, level. These mixed findings suggest that the trust-wellbeing relationship depends critically on issues of definition (how the variables are conceptualized) and measurement (how they are operationalized according to different units of analysis). Our study offers implications for the literature on social determinants of mental health broadly and, more specifically, on the role of social trust.

中文翻译：

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检查心理健康与社会信任之间的多层次关联：调查数据的初步分析

本研究报告研究的韩国成年人中社会信任的多种措施和心理健康的两种结果（幸福和抑郁）之间的关联（ñ  = 1549）居住在住宅社区，也就是行政区（ñ = 77) 首尔及其周边地区。基于多层次模型，我们发现家庭信任在个体和情境层面都积极预测幸福；它仅在个人层面对抑郁症进行负面预测。相比之下，同伴信任仅与个人层面的抑郁呈负相关，尽管关系不大。最后，普遍信任显着预测了社区而非个人层面的两种结果。这些混合的发现表明，信任与幸福的关系在很大程度上取决于定义（变量如何概念化）和测量（它们如何根据不同的分析单元进行操作）的问题。我们的研究为广泛的心理健康社会决定因素的文献提供了启示，更具体地说，是对社会信任的作用。