The Effect of the Social Capital on the Life Satisfaction in Rural Areas

Many fields of science, the economy being first, aim to ensure that the individuals and the society lead a happy and satisfactory life. Many studies attempted to measure the life satisfaction by the means of demographical, genetic, psychological and economic variables; however, the social capital has been largely overlooked in this manner. This study discusses the relationship between the social capital and the life satisfaction. In the study, in which the structural equation model was employed, the findings suggest that there is a positive relationship between the life satisfaction and the social capital. The associational social capital (0.65), Cognitive social capital (0.62) and the structural social capital (0.31) have an intermediate level effect on the life satisfaction in a positive direction.