Social Capital, Civic Engagement, and the Value of Network Ties: A Latent Class Analysis

Background: Resource networks vary across the socioeconomic spectrum in both network tie and resource access composition. Strong tie networks that dominate social capital resource networks among lower income populations can act as a constraint. Some have argued that lower income populations are plagued by low-value social capital important for daily living but offering little in the way of climbing the social and economic ladder. Weak tie networks of acquaintances and work colleagues among middle and upper income populations offer access to a broad array of resources. Our study contributes to the literature by testing the association between latent profiles of individuals accessing social capital within four domains and population demographic profiles. This analysis helps us explicate what type of people are accessing social capital in specific sets of network relations (family/friends; neighbors; work colleagues/acquaintances). This is important to social workers who engage in social development efforts as they build network and resource-based interventions.  

Methods: Data are from a telephone cross-sectional survey of African American adults living within 5 miles of two historic downtown Atlanta, GA neighborhoods (N=424). We drew a random sample of telephone numbers from zip codes in the specified catchment area. We measured social capital ties using the 24 item Resource Generator-US, which assesses social capital resources available via specified social relationships. Resources were grouped into four domains based on prior research: problem solving; personal support; employment support; and expert advice. 

We used latent class analysis (LCA) to examine if distinct patterns of social networks existed within each of the four social capital resource domains. We then examined if income, church attendance, and number of organizations a person was involved in were related to class membership.

Results: We found two classes within each of the four domains – one class of adults who did not have any network members (Class 1) and one class whose networks consisted of strong ties (Class 2). Income and civic engagement were significantly associated with class membership.  Within the employment and problem-solving domains, adults in Class 2 had higher incomes and higher involvement in organizations compared to Class 1.  Within the personal support domain, Class 2 had higher incomes than Class 1 and within the expert advice domain, Class 2 had higher involvement in organizations.  

Implications: Civic engagement is a strong indicator of the type of capital one accesses. Tie strength is less predictive of social capital than is community engagement. Except for personal support, all other domains are often accessed by people with high levels of civic engagement. Residents of urban neighborhoods build heterogeneous resource networks through civic engagement. The dominance of strong tie networks does not deter the acquisition of high-value social capital contrary to extant literature. Social work researchers should consider intensity of civic engagement as an important factor in building high-value social capital among residents of urban neighborhoods. Practitioners need to strategize ways to enhance civic engagement as a mechanism to promote social and economic mobility among urban African Americans.