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Bonds, Bridges and Quality of Life in Small Towns

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Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between two types of social capital (bonding and bridging) and quality of life in small Iowa communities. Social capital literature suggests potentially differing community outcomes depending on the type of social capital present in each community. I utilize longitudinal data from 1994 to 2004 to assess the relationship between social capital and the amount of change in quality of life and overall levels of quality of life. The findings provide partial support of the hypotheses, namely that aspects of bridging (between group) social capital are significant and more useful in explaining variations in overall levels of quality of life and changes in levels of quality of life over a 10 year period compared with bonding (within group) social capital.

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Notes

  1. 1994 is the year when the first leg of the longitudinal data collection was completed.

  2. The log of population was used to create a normal distribution.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Metropolitan State University of Denver, Campus Box 28, PO Box 173362, Denver, CO, 80217-3362, USA

    Nicholas Recker

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  1. Nicholas Recker
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Correspondence to Nicholas Recker.

Appendix A

Appendix A

Table 4 Social capital variables and their factor loadings
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Recker, N. Bonds, Bridges and Quality of Life in Small Towns. Applied Research Quality Life 8, 63–75 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-012-9181-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-012-9181-y

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