Measuring the Status of Young Women’s Social Capital in Tehran and the Effect of Individual and Psychological Factors

Abstract Considering the importance of conducting studies on youth, young girls in particular, and also the importance of paying attention to social capital and its role in development process of a society and decreasing social problems and loss; the present study is an attempt to investigate the structure of social capital and its constructing components (solidarity, social participation, ethical values and social trust). In addition, the mental factors affecting social participation are considered at the subjective dimension and micro level of social capital. To this end, a survey was conducted using a questionnaire, and 386 single women ranging in age from 15 to 40 participated. The sample population was identified using a stratified multistage method. The validity test used in this study is construct validity (KMO > 0.60) and face validity. The reliability is tested using Cronbach Alpha test (r > 0.7 for all variables). The results imply an average condition for social capital in the sample population and this situation is observed in almost all of the 22 districts of Tehran. Among the constructing components of social capital, the status of social participation in these regions is better than other variables, but the status of solidarity is weaker and lower in comparison to other variables. Among the mental factors affecting social capital, only the correlation between the variables ‘feeling of worthiness’ (directly) and ‘feeling of lack of power’ (indirectly) are confirmed, which is a weak correlation. In other words, this correlation does not play a major role in explaining the variance of the variable ‘social capital’.