Social Capital and Social Exclusion Among Minority US Populations

Background: Civic engagement has been shown to build social capital and to facilitate collective action. Mobilization of social capital leads to expressive returns such as life satisfaction while collective action keeps social issues central in the community’s thought. Given the increased incidents of racially and ethnically motivated hate crimes in the U.S., tensions between police and African American communities, and rhetoric about undocumented immigrants, we question the extent to which minorities feel they are valued in American society. Social capital research has examined its differential effects among racial groups, but has not examined it as a protective factor against social exclusion among minorities. Our study contributes to the literature by testing the association between activities that generate social capital and feelings of social inclusion and social exclusion among minorities.

Methods: Data are from the Collaborative Multiracial Post-Election Survey, an online cross-sectional survey (N=10,145) administered from December 2016 to February 2017. The survey was available in multiple languages. We measured social capital with a composite variable that included civic activities theoretically salient to social capital creation. We measured social inclusion with a composite of two variables measuring the extent one felt they belonged and were valued in the U.S., and social exclusion a composite of two variables measuring the extent one felt excluded and like an outsider. We used multinomial logistic regression to estimate the associations.

Results:  Social capital is associated with significantly lower odds of feeling one belongs not at all in the U.S. (OR=.492), belongs slightly (OR=.885), and belongs moderately (OR=.995) as compared to feeling one strongly belongs. Hispanics have significantly higher odds of feeling they belong only slightly (OR=1.598) and moderately (OR=1.792) as compared to whites. African Americans have significantly higher odds of feeling they belong not at all (OR=1.83), only slightly (OR=2.629), and moderately (OR=2.119) as compared to whites.

Social capital is associated with significantly higher odds of feeling one is always excluded in the U.S. (OR=1.46), is very often excluded (OR=1.276), and is seldom excluded (OR=1.097) as compared to never feeling excluded. Hispanics (OR=3.029) and African Americans (OR=7.468) have significantly higher odds of feeling always excluded, very often excluded (OR=2.923) (OR=5.477), and seldom excluded (OR=2.274) (OR=2.786) as compared to whites.

Implications: Social capital promotes feeling of belonging in American society, though among minorities such feelings are not as high as for whites. However, social capital does not protect against feelings of exclusion but may highlight it. This effect may be due to the types of political and civic activities minorities engaged in along with the social discourse just prior to or after the 2016 election. While this civic engagement did build social capital, minorities nevertheless reported feeling socially excluded and marginalized. Therefore, these findings invite us to view social capital differently – its ability to keep minorities mindful of social problems their communities face may promote collective action. As such, social capital, while promoting feelings of belonging, may also be a proactive factor against exclusion by empowering communities to coalesce for change.