Evaluation of the Factors Influencing Students' Social Capital: A Step Towards Social Development

Nowadays, social capital plays much more important role than physical and human capital in organizations. This study has been conducted aiming to investigate the social capital of students in order to provide a suitable context for social development. This study was a descriptive survey; the statistical population included of all students of Mazandaran University of Science and Technology in the second semester of academic year 1396-1395; sampling method was simple random sampling and data collection tool was Bullen social capital questionnaire; validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by the experts and its reliability was obtained with Cronbach's alpha coefficient in the 95% level. Data analysis was performed using SPSS.18 software. The average social capital of students in general is moderate. The lowest average was related to participation in local communities and the most one was related to the field of communication with friends and family, the variables of location, marital status, native or non-native, gender, university terms, level, GPA, age, employment status had a directly or indirectly significant effect on social capital. Lower social capital of participants in community participation and significant impact of reviewed variables on students' social capital requires special attention and the efforts of academic officials to provide related appropriate infrastructure, especially creating student participation areas in extra-curricular activities and counseling services and creating opportunities for social interaction, including individual and group interactions.