title: Psychometric properties of the Persian version of Social Capital Questionnaire in Iran.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The aim of this study was to investigate the psychometric properties of Social Capital Questionnaire ( SCQ) developed by Onyx and Bullen (2000) among a sample of medical science students in Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran and to compare the factor analysis with findings from two previous studies in Australia and the United States.
  
  
  METHODS
  Multistage cluster sampling was employed to recruit 293 medical science students (Male: 95/Female: 198) from 7 faculties in Tehran University of Medical Sciences. After translating SCQ into Persian applying back-translation technique and three-stage consensus panel, the questionnaires administered to the respondents and they were asked to complete them. Statistical Analysis was performed using SPSS version 16.0 for Windows.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was conducted to evaluate factor structure of the Persian SCQ (PSCQ),which showed a moderate replicability, validity, and reliability (Cronbach alpha= .79) to those found in previous studies. Twelve factors extracted with eight values greater than 1 which altogether accounted for 76.23% of the total variance. Applying Cattell's scree test, it was indicated that between seven and eight factor sextracted. The correlations between factors were detected in the low (at the lowest 0.002) to modest (at the highest 0.614) range.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The differences found in the factor analysis between the studies may be ascribed to the various types of populations studied. Despite the difference in populations studied, our findings support the meaningful nessof P-SCQ as an instrument that is worthy of further attention for use in social health researches, although more studies are recommended to help researchers in comparing its variety in dimensions of different communities.
authors.affiliation: 1. MSc in Epidemiology, Kurdistan Research Center for Social Determinants of Health (KRSDH), Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences, Sanandaj, Iran. yariarezoorose@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Arezoo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yari
authors.affiliation: 2. PhD student in Health Education, Department of Health Education and Promotion, School of Health and Health Research Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran. nadrian@razi.tums.ac.ir.
authors.forename: Haidar
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nadrian
authors.affiliation: 3. PhD student in Epidemiology, School of Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran. hmdhrashidian@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Hamideh
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Rashidian
authors.affiliation: 4. Associate Professor in Epidemiology, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Health, Knowledge Utilization Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. nejatsan@tums.ac.ir.
authors.forename: Saharnaz
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nedjat
authors.affiliation: 5. Associate Professor in Epidemiology, School of Medicine, Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences, Kurdistan, Iran. esmailnasab@ yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Nader
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Esmaeilnasab
authors.affiliation: 6. MSc in Health Economics, School of Health and Health Research Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. daroudir@ gmail.com.
authors.forename: Rajabali
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Doroudi
authors.affiliation: 7. MSc in Midwifery, Department of Nursing & Midwifery, Sanandaj Branch, Islamic Azad University, Sanandaj, Iran. h_hoorsan@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Haydeh
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hoursan
keywords: Construct Validity; Factor Analysis; Iran; Social Capital