Spain

Peer Groups and Social Capital

Evidence from Spain has improved the understanding of peer-group effects, their cross-national variation, and their impact on individuals' quality of life. The size of friendship networks has a strong association with an individual's perception of happiness, particularly among individuals identified with the same socioeconomic status. The comparison by age groups concludes that friendship networks are especially beneficial for elders' health. Intergenerational coresidence is claimed to have a positive effect on elders' quality of life, and this is specifically the case for the prevention of depression. Comparative research points out that the number of close friends in Spain does not increase happiness, while it does in the United States. In Spain, having no close friends has an inverse effect by tending to increase the degree of happiness, while for the United States, the opposite is true. Among foreign-born populations, having friends from the receiving society is a critical variable for predicting the degree of satisfaction in receiving societies. Further research along these lines is needed to determine if friendship networks are equally relevant across different foreign-born communities, their urban or rural location, or the number of years they have resided in Spain.

The level of social capital at work is the best predictor for job satisfaction. Individuals' trust in management and the commitment to the company's success are the most important social capital variables, followed by the number of social relations with coworkers, communication, and the possibilities of influencing organizational decisions. These findings reveal the importance of providing an organizational environment facilitating the development of social capital at work. Cross-national evidence reveals contradictory effects about the relevance of weak ties for professional success. Similar to the United States, the majority of jobs in Spain are obtained through social resources. Yet, the amount of social capital does not necessarily lead to the attainment of better jobs. In the case of Spain, jobs obtained through informal channels tend to be of lower quality than those obtained through formal ones.

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