COVID-19 and Social Capital Loss: The Results of a Campus Outbreak

• Published in: Social indicators research Vol. 165; no. 3; pp. 867 - 878
• Main Authors: Fulkerson, Gregory, Thomas, Alexander, Ho, Jing-Mao, Zians, James, Seale, Elizabeth, McCarthy, Michael, Han, Sallie
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.02.2023; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Black students; Capital losses; Collective action; College campuses; College students; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; Epidemics; Ethnicity; Gender; Human Geography; Hypotheses; Medical research; Microeconomics; Original Research; Outbreaks; Pandemics; Public Health; Quality of Life Research; Race; Social capital; Social Sciences; Sociology; social capital; community shock; Covid-19; college campus
• ISSN: 0303-8300; 1573-0921
• DOI: 10.1007/s11205-022-03043-z

This study examines the effects of a COVID-19 outbreak on levels of social capital on a college campus, drawing on survey data collected from students at two colleges—one that experienced an outbreak and one that did not. Social capital is examined as an individual level resource and as a campus level normative tool used to fight collective action problems. We test the hypothesis that the outbreak, as a “shock” to the campus, diminished social capital. We also test hypotheses on gender, race, and ethnicity and social capital, informed by prior research. Our findings suggest that the outbreak did reduce social capital at both the individual and campus levels, though individual social capital had a mitigating effect that increased campus social capital. We find also that gender was significantly linked to campus social capital, while race was predictive of individual level social capital.