Relevance of social capital in preserving subjective well-being in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic

This paper analyzes the changes in subjective well-being (SWB) in 11 Latin American cities at the end of the acceleration phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, the variables that influenced these changes, and the role of the public support policies and the social capital on SWB recovery. This study, the second of a two-phase research project, is a survey-based comparative analysis. The 5604 survey responses obtained included 3279 observations from the research project's preceding phase, and 2325 observations conducted as part of the second project phase and current study. A multivariate linear regression model was used to evaluate the impact of the different variables related to COVID-19 on people's SWB. Results show that the most significant positive impacts on SWB, are attributed to social capital, particularly family and social cohesion. The study confirms that the level of SWB is strongly associated with personality traits, health, and key variables such as age, marital status, and income. The different measures established to control the pandemic have not remedied the negative impacts of COVID-19 on people's SWB. However, an increase in different degrees of SWB was observed in 10 out of the 11 cities between the initial survey and the follow-up survey.