Development of a new tool to measure bridging social capital in migrants

Introduction: Social capital is defined as the resources accessed by individuals through their social networks. “Bridging” social capital refers to connections between individuals who are heterogeneous with respect to personal characteristics such as nativity, language, and socioeconomic position. Bridging capital is thus particularly relevant for the health of migrant groups, yet standardized instruments for measuring this construct do not exist. We sought to create and validate an instrument to measure bridging social capital among immigrants.

Methodology: We performed a literature search to characterize the different ways in which bridging capital has been measured in the literature. We created a pool of items and conducted focus groups and semistructured interviews with immigrants to establish content validity.

Results: We identified 43 manuscripts and selected 5 that tapped bridging social capital to create a pool of items. We adapted the questionnaire based on feedback received from focus groups and semistructured interviews. Psychometric validation (internal consistency reliability, construct validation, and tests of differential item functioning) was conducted on the resulting multi-item scale.

Conclusion: The availability of bridging social capital is a potentially important influence on immigrant health. Our validated instrument provides a new tool to capture bridging social capital in this population.