Abstract
Access to social resources depends on informal and formal networks an individual is embedded in. To assess the openness, resp. the spanning of structural holes in the network it is useful to apply a bridging social capital item battery introduced by Pajak [2006].
In the frame of the telephone survey "Social Relationships among Czech Citizens 2007/2008", we used this item battery, though included an enhancement: it now asks for a concrete number of family members, friends and acquaintances that are of different characteristic. Using this way of questioning allows assessing the concrete size and range of a respondent's network.
The analyses show rather low test-retest reliabilities. Furthermore, the factor structure as revealed by the previous studies cannot be found.
The results point to the necessity to revise the item battery as well as the theoretical assumption bridging social capital creates latent constructs. To us, an additive index seems more reasonable.