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Health Education Research Advance Access published online on May 9, 2008
Health Education Research, doi:10.1093/her/cyn020
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Personal Social Capital Scale: an instrument for health and behavioral research

X Chen1,*, B Stanton1, J Gong2, X Fang3 and X Li1

1 Department of Pediatrics Prevention Research Center, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48201, USA
2 Wuhan Centers for Disease Prevention and Control, Wuhan 430022, China
3 Institute of Developmental Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China

Correspondence to: * Correspondence to: X. Chen. E-mail: jimchen{at}med.wayme.edu

The concept of social capital has drawn much attention in social and behavioral epidemiology and health education research. The purpose of this study is to develop the ‘Personal Social Capital Scale’ for quantitative survey studies of social factors that are related to health and behavior. The instrument contained 10 composite items based on 42 items for assessing personally owned social capital, including bonding and bridging capitals. The instrument was assessed using cross-sectional survey data collected among 128 participants (64 women) with a participation rate of 95%. Results from correlation and confirmatory factor analysis indicated adequate reliability and internal consistency. The mean score of the scale was 25.9 (SD = 5.2) for total social capital, 15.2 (SD = 3.0) for bonding social capital and 10.8 (SD = 3.4) for bridging social capital. The scale scores significantly predicted a number of theoretically related factors, including people skills, being sociable, social capital investment, informational support, instrumental support, emotional support and collective efficacy. This instrument provides a new tool for cross-cultural research to assess personally owned social capital.

Received on October 30, 2007; accepted on March 4, 2008


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