Social Capital and Perceived Constraints

The author examined the experiences of social capital and perceived constraints across genders, ecologies, and multiple life span development stages in the Indian context. Along with this, the study explored the relationship between social capital and perceived constraints.360 males and females, ranging from15 to 65 years (M=33.50, SD=11.99) belonging to two ecological settings i. e., rural India and urban India completed Social Capital Scale comprising of four subscales as Social Equality Scale (developed by the authors), Social Reputation Scale (developed by the present researchers), Social Support Scale (Mehra and Kulhara, 1997) and Interpersonal Relationship Scale (developed by the present researchers); Perceived Constraints Scale (Pearlin andSchooler, 1978) and responded to demographic questions. The comparisons of the group across gender, ecology, and developmental stages are undertaken in this study did point out ample influence on the measures of social capital and perceived constraints. They evinced that how people visualize social capital and perceive constraints may vary according to the context to which they belong. In conclusion, the age, gender, and ecological setting of a person affect social capital and perceived constraints. Correlational analysis showed a mixed pattern of relationship between the factors of social capital and perceived constraints. It may be noted that the formation, as well as the perception of social capital and perceived constraints, takes place in the specific socio-cultural context. There was an uneven distribution of social capital across different socio-cultural characteristics. However, it was difficult to separate the causal processes involved; therefore, more studies of the causal effects of socio-cultural characteristics on social capital accumulation and the experience of perceived constraints are recommended.