The Dynamics of Social Capital: Examining the Reciprocity between Network Features and Social Support

Abstract

An essential tenet of social capital is that it is a reciprocal process: social networks produce desirable outcomes, and the resulting outcomes can then feed back into influencing networks. The current study is among the first to examine a dynamic, reciprocal process of social capital, using within-person measures from 2,065 reports of offline and online daily social interactions from 66 participants over a 1-week period. Results show that online and offline social interactions, characterized by tie strength and communication diversity, generate different levels of emotional, practical, and informational support, which, in turn, exerts differential influence on tie strength and diversity of subsequent interactions. Results also reveal a mismatch between the resulting social support and subsequent motivated social interactions. Importantly, social support reinforces subsequent tie strength but reduces communication diversity.