What Influenced People's Cultural and Social Capitals During COVID-19 Lockdown in Italy?

Cultural Capital can be defined as the knowledge and use of cultural codes considered relevant to the community where people live (Lamont & Lareau, 1988). Cultural Capital has three dimensions concerning different cultural activities types: (1) consuming – i.e., visiting exhibitions, museums, or galleries, attending theatre performances or musical events, reading books -; (2) expert using - i.e., using foreign languages, using the Internet to stay informed, creating art, performing in concerts, plays or dance productions, writing-; and (3) participating, i.e., participation in the activities of cultural, religious and political, or community service groups/associations. Social Capital can be defined as the resources associated with durable and trustworthy social connections with individuals or groups (Bourdieu, 1980; Coleman, 1988). Social Capital is composed of Bonding and Bridging Social Capital, concerning resources associated with connections “within groups” e “across groups”, respectively. Cultural Capital and Social Capital, together with Socio-Economic Status, form a person’s Social Cultural Level (SCL), i.e., preferences, knowledge, and behaviors characterizing the way of life of an individual that depends on their own cultural, social and economic resources. One 's SCL is known to have relations with individuals’ personality and adaptive behavior, health risk behaviors, perceived poor health, and mental health. Given that COVID-19 and the measures governments used to contain its spread had so much influence in the environment people interacted with, it is sensible to expect that the recent period had some influence on individuals’ Cultural Capital and Social Capital. The present study aimed to investigate (1) the Cultural Capital and Social Capital of 1464 residents in Italy during its first lockdown (March-May 2020), (2) the changes in both constructs and its dimensions in comparison to the period before lockdown regarding evaluations made by the individuals themselves, and (3) the socio-demographic factors that acted as predictors of behavior and its changes. We found no differences between the changes in Social Capital total and Cultural Capital total (Wilcoxon test: z = -.344, p = .731), but there were differences in changes within the dimensions of both constructs. During the lockdown, Bridging usually increased more than Bonding Social Capital (Wilcoxon test: z = -10.690, p < .001). Expert using increased more than Consuming (Wilcoxon test: z = -11.814, p < .001), and then, again, the latter more than Participating (Wilcoxon test: z = -16.200, p < .001). Regression analyses will allow us to identify if and how socio-demographic factors (e.g., age, gender, educational level, Italy region) affected Cultural Capital, Social Capital and its changes during the lockdown. In this way, we will have a more extensive analysis of how COVID-19 lockdown influenced individuals’ behaviors and, consequently, investigate how this particular period characteristics can be used to understand Social Cultural Level and all of its influences on human life.