Social capital: a guide to its measurement

The primary aims-of this paper are to review the concept of social capital and related constructs and to provide a brief guide to their operationaliza tion and measurement. We focus on four existing constructs: collective effi cacy, psychological sense of community, neighborhood cohesion and community competence. Each of these constructs taps into slightly different, yet ove rlapping, aspects of social capital. The existence of several instruments t o measure each of these constructs calls for further study into their use a s measures of social capital. Despite differences in the approach to measur ement, there is general agreement that community characteristics, such as s ocial capital, should be distinguished from individual characteristics and measured at the community level. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.