Measuring religious social capital: the scale properties of the Williams Religious Social Capital Index (WRSCI) among cathedral congregations

The theoretical construct of social capital remains contested in terms of conceptualisation and measurement. The present paper follows the convention of distinguishing between trust, bonding, bridging and linking social capital, to conceptualise how religious communities promote and develop social c...

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Auteur principal: Williams, Emyr (Auteur)
Type de support: Électronique Article
Langue:Anglais
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Publié: Routledge 2008
Dans: Journal of beliefs and values
Année: 2008, Volume: 29, Numéro: 3, Pages: 327-332
Sujets non-standardisés:B Cathedrals
B Social Capital
B Scale
B religious social capital
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Résumé:The theoretical construct of social capital remains contested in terms of conceptualisation and measurement. The present paper follows the convention of distinguishing between trust, bonding, bridging and linking social capital, to conceptualise how religious communities promote and develop social capital within a specifically religious cohort. Developing this construct of religious social capital further, this paper proposes a measure for use specifically among religious communities to assess individual‐level social capital. The Williams Religious Social Capital Index (WRSCI) provides a unidimensional construct of religious social capital taking into consideration the four elements highlighted. A sample of 720 members of six cathedral congregations in England and Wales completed a battery of items concerning social capital. Factor analysis procedures produced a 12‐item index of religious social capital. Reliability analyses demonstrated that this index achieved satisfactory levels of internal reliability consistency. Construct validity was supported by the clear association between frequency of attendance and levels of assessed religious social capital.
ISSN:1469-9362
Contient:Enthalten in: Journal of beliefs and values
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/13617670802511103