Da. Scheufele et Dv. Shah, Personality strength and social capital - The role of dispositional and informational variables in the production of civic participation, COMM RES, 27(2), 2000, pp. 107-131
Many scholars have bemoaned declining levels of social trust and civic enga
gement in our society. A decline in trust, some have argued, is linked to a
decrease in civic engagement and vice versa. This study examines the proce
sses through which this dynamic, termed social capital, is maintained. The
authors differentiate three dimensions of social! capital: social trust, li
fe satisfaction, and civic engagement. They also examine the influence of d
emographic, personality strength, political interest, and informational var
iables (hard news media use) on, these dimensions. The authors use data fro
m DDB Needham's 1997 Life Style Study to test their hypothesized model. Res
ults of structural equation modeling revealed that personality strength an
amalgam of self-confidence and opinion leadership, has a relatively strong
direct impact on, all dimensions of social capital, whereas informational v
ariables have rather weak effects that are limited to civic engagement.