title: Measurement of social capital among clinical research trainees.
abstract: While physical and human capital are established as important predictors of success among early-career clinical investigators, less is known about the role of social capital. The authors aimed to develop a brief scale to assess social capital in this population and test its reliability and validity. A three-item assessment was developed based on a conceptual framework and measures of social capital from other fields and was administered to 414 clinical research trainees at the University of Pittsburgh in 2007-2012. The measure exhibited good internal consistency reliability (α = 0.71) and a normal distribution. On a 10-point scale, mean social capital was 6.4 (SD = 1.7). Social capital was significantly associated with 7 of the 9 expected constructs: sex, age, confidence in research skills, work-related motivation, burnout, and social support. Exploratory multivariable regression analysis demonstrated that social capital was most strongly associated with higher research confidence (β = 0.35, p < 0.001), higher extrinsic motivation (β = 0.50, p = 0.003), and lower burnout (ptrend = 0.02). This three-item scale measures social capital in this population with adequate internal consistency reliability, face validity, and construct validity. This brief assessment provides a tool that may be valuable to benchmark social capital of clinical research trainees and to better contextualize programmatic and trainee outcomes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Pediatrics, and Clinical and Translational Science, Center for Research on Health Care, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
authors.forename: Brian A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Primack
authors.forename: Jason B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Colditz
authors.forename: Elan
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Cohen
authors.forename: Galen E
authors.initials: GE
authors.lastname: Switzer
authors.forename: Georgeanna F W B
authors.initials: GF
authors.lastname: Robinson
authors.forename: Deborah L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Seltzer
authors.forename: Doris M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Rubio
authors.forename: Wishwa N
authors.initials: WN
authors.lastname: Kapoor
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000193:education; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D010414:Pennsylvania; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D060756:Social Networking; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014495:Universities; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: clinical research; measurement; motivation; psychometrics; social capital; training