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Measuring Social Capital Investment: Scale Development and Examination of Links to Social Capital and Perceived Stress

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Abstract

Individuals with greater social capital have better health outcomes. Investment in social capital likely increases one’s own social capital, bearing great implications for disease prevention and health promotion. In this study, the authors developed and validated the Social Capital Investment Inventory (SCII). Direct effects of social capital investment on perceived stress, and indirect effects through social capital were examined. 397 Participants from Beijing and Wuhan, China completed surveys. Analyses demonstrated that the SCII has a single factor structure and strong internal consistency. Structural equation modeling showed that individuals who invested more in social capital had greater bonding social capital, and subsequently less perceived stress. Results suggest that disease prevention and health promotion programs should consider approaches to encourage social capital investment; individuals may be able to reduce stress by increasing their investment in social capital. Future research is needed to provide additional empirical support for the SCII and observed structural relationships.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by research funding from the National Institute of Health through a research Grant (R01 MH200396). We thank research staff at Wuhan Centers for Disease Prevention and Control and the graduate students from Beijing Normal University who devoted their effort to complete data collection in the field and to help clean and process the collected data.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Wuhan University Global Health Center, Wuhan, China

    Xinguang Chen & Peigang Wang

  2. School of Medicine, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA

    Xinguang Chen, Peigang Wang, Rhiana Wegner & Linda Kaljee

  3. Wuhan Centers for Disease Prevention and Control, Wuhan, China

    Xinguang Chen & Jie Gong

  4. Beijing Normal University Developmental Institute, Beijing, China

    Xiaoyi Fang

  5. Psychology Department, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA

    Rhiana Wegner

  6. Department of Epidemiology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA

    Xinguang Chen

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  1. Xinguang Chen
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Correspondence to Xinguang Chen or Peigang Wang.

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Chen, X., Wang, P., Wegner, R. et al. Measuring Social Capital Investment: Scale Development and Examination of Links to Social Capital and Perceived Stress. Soc Indic Res 120, 669–687 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-014-0611-0

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