CIVIC ENGAGEMENT, INTERPERSONAL-TRUST, AND TELEVISION USE - AN INDIVIDUAL-LEVEL ASSESSMENT OF SOCIAL CAPITAL

The mechanisms underlying the formation and sustenance of social capit al on the individual level were explored with a structural model compo sed of the endogenous variables of civic engagement and interpersonal trust. Using the 1995 DDB Needham life style study, analysis of the mo del permitted an examination of the strength and direction of the caus al relationships driving the ''virtuous circle'' of participation and trust; the demographic, situational/contextual, orientational, and att itudinal factors that ave exogenous to these Intent variables: and the linkage between these components of social capital and viewing prefer ences for specific television genres. The results indicate that (I) th e direction of the linkage between civic engagement and interpersonal trust is mainly from participating to trusting; and (2) television vie wing plays a conditional role in the production of social capital that is dependent on the use of particular genres.