Virtual communities in schools as tools to promote social capital with high schools students

The general aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that students belonging to a school online community would show higher levels of both offline bridging and bonding social capital than a control group of students, not using the online community. We further hypothesized that the more students used the online community the higher their level of their offline bonding and bridging social capital. Participants were 264 high school boys and girls, 126, (62 males and 64 females) who had joined the community online Spallanzani shout and 138, (62 males and 76 females) who did not. ANOVAs analysis showed that levels of bridging and bonding social capitals were significantly higher for members. Instead intensity of use was significantly related only to bridging but not to bonding social capital. Implications of the findings and directions for future research are discussed.