Complementary contribution of social capital accessible from friends to achievement in life

The contribution of social capital or social connections with friends for accessing resources to achievement such as reaching goals in life among people is unclear. This is possible because the contribution depends on different combinations of social capital components. One possibility is combining both the structural and functional components of social capital multiplicatively generates an additional contribution because of their complementary. To clarify the contribution, a survey of 704 Chinese adults in Hong Kong provides data for analysis. Specifically, confirmatory factor analysis ensured the validity of measures for regression analysis to test the theses. Results support the complementarity view rather than the competition view, as the combination of social capital components derived from friends contributed to life achievement. Results thus imply the benefit of integrating resources from various components of social capital to advance achievement in adults. Accordingly, practices can capitalize on the complementarity of social capital components to optimize people’s life achievement.