Measures of San
Antonio’s Social Capital—Perceptions of Social Networking
By Darla Norton, Research Associate, Juanita M.
Firestone, Ph.D., Professor, and Arturo Vega, Ph.D., Associate Professor
Issue: This issue brief is the second in a series of analyses that examine social capital in Bexar County (San Antonio), Texas. This brief examines levels of social networking. Social networks and networking are integral parts of a community’s social capital or a measure of the levels of social relationships within communities and among individuals. One’s social networks and one’s ability to network are important to general trust, access to information and norms of reciprocity. Typically social networks are distinguished as “bonding” and “bridging” networks. Bonding networks typically occur between homogenous groups, mainly among family members or between individuals with a shared identity (i.e. race/ethnicity, religious). Bridging networks occur between communities by connecting various groups (i.e. religious, ethnic, social, and political) and are useful for social or economic improvements.
The research questions examined here are: What are the levels of social networks (bridging and bonding) in San Antonio, Texas? Are there significant variations in levels of bridging and bonding social capital among aspects of the community?
Data and Methods: Data for this study were collected during the San Antonio Survey 2003 (SAS 2003), which was conducted during the weeks of October 12-28th, 2003.[i] Responses are from a random probability sample of the general population of adults 18 years of age and older in Bexar County, (San Antonio) Texas, with listed phone numbers. A split sample design produced 423 responses from a random sample of individuals within the county, and an additional oversample of 136 respondents living on San Antonio’s West Side for a total of 559 respondents.[ii] To measure levels of social networking three questions were asked:
- “How frequently have you been in the home of someone from a different neighborhood or had them in your home?” (BRIDGING social network);
- “How frequently have you been in the home of someone from a different race or had them in your home?” (BRIDGING social network); and
- “How frequently have you had friends over to your home?” (BONDING social network).[iii]
Findings: In response to the question “How frequently have you been in the home of someone from a different neighborhood or had them in your home?” nearly thirty-five (34.9%) percent of respondents replied they “frequently” do, while thirty-nine (39.4%) percent replied they “sometimes do” (see Figure 1). Just over twenty-five (25.7%) percent reported they “never” or “seldom” have been in the home or had someone in their home from a different neighborhood.
When asked “How frequently have you been in the home of someone from a different race or had them in your home?”, over thirty-six (36.3%) percent of the respondents reported “frequently” visit with a person from a different race, while an additional thirty-six (35.7%) percent indicated “sometimes” (see Figure 2). Just over fourteen (14.4%) percent of respondents “never” have a person of a different race at their home or go to their home, while thirteen (13.6%) percent “seldom” do.
Four in ten (41%) respondents reported that they “frequently” have friends over while over one in three (35.3%) said they do “sometimes” (see Figure 3), when asked, “How frequently have you had friends over to your home?” Less than one in four respondents (23.1%) reported that they “never” or “only seldom” visit with someone from a different neighborhood.
Table 1 presents the distributions of the two bridging (NEIGHBORHOODS and VISIT DIFFERENT RACE HOME) and the one bonding (VISIT FRIENDS) questions of social networks by demographic determinants. Reponses to the NEIGHBORHOODS question were statistically significant and moderately associated with age and West Side, but only weakly associated with educational attainment and income. Responses to the VISIT DIFFERENT RACE HOME question were also statistically significant and weakly related with age, income, educational attainment and gender, but moderately
associated with race/ethnicity and West Side. Nearly half on the young adults (18-29) frequently visit with someone from a different neighborhood or of a different race, whereas less than a quarter of senior adults (65+) do. Respondents in the lowest income bracket were least likely to “frequently” visit (29.8%) with someone from another neighborhood. This compared to over four in ten respondents in the higher income group. There were no significant differences by income groupings associated with visiting with someone of a different race.
There were also no significant differences in frequency of visiting with someone from a different neighborhood by race or ethnicity. However, African Americans were significantly more likely to “frequently” visit with someone of a different race. In both questions, only three in ten Hispanic respondents reported “frequently” having someone over to their homes from a different neighborhood or a different race and lagged behind their racial/ethnic counterparts.
Levels of educational attainment are also associated with the ‘different neighbors’ and ‘different race’ questions. Here, respondents with less than a high school education are significantly less likely to “frequently” visit with persons from a different neighborhood (9.6%) or with persons of a different race (10.8%) than respondents in higher educated groupings.
Respondents living on the West Side were also significant different in their responses to “neighborhoods” and “visit different race” questions. Here, one fourth (25.3%) of the West side respondents indicated that they “frequently” had been in the home of someone from a different neighborhood or had them in their home compared to nearly four in ten (38.5%) Bexar County respondents. A similar pattern was found when responses were compared for the frequency of having been in the home of someone of a different race or had someone of a different race in their home (23.3% Westsiders vs. 42.1% Other Bexar respondents). No statistically significant differences were found
among respondents living inside or outside Loop 410 as to whether they visited with someone from a different neighborhood or a different race.
In addition, no statistically significant differences were found among male and female respondents as to whether respondents visited with someone from a different neighborhood. However, females were slightly more likely to “frequently” visit with someone of a different race (females 41.3% vs. males 32.9%).