Does Facebook Use Predict College Students’ Social Capital? A Replication of Ellison, Steinfield, and Lampe’s (2007) Study Using the Original and More Recent Measures of Facebook Use and Social Capital

Mariek M.P. Vanden Abeele*, Marjolijn L. Antheunis, Monique M.H. Pollmann, Alexander P. Schouten, Christine C. Liebrecht, Per J. van der Wijst, Marije A.A. van Amelsvoort, Jos Bartels, Emiel J. Krahmer, Fons A. Maes

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

23 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In 2007 Ellison, Steinfield, and Lampe published an article on the positive association between Facebook use and social capital that started a decade of research on the social outcomes of social network site use. Although cited almost 9,000 times, it received critique on the conceptualization and operationalization of Facebook use and social capital. In this study we replicate Ellison et al.’s study with original and alternative measures of social capital and Facebook use, thereby shedding light on the robustness, stability, and ecological validity of the original findings. We found that Facebook intensity positively predicts the original social capital measures, lending support to the validity of the original findings. Its relationship with structural measures, however, was weak for bridging and absent for bonding social capital.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)272-282
Number of pages11
JournalCommunication Studies
Volume69
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 27 May 2018

Scopus Subject Areas

  • Communication

User-Defined Keywords

  • Bonding
  • Bridging
  • Facebook
  • Social Capital
  • Social Network Sites (SNSs)

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