Does social capital deter youth from cheating, alcohol use, and violence in Turkey?: Bringing torpil in

The objective of this study was to explore the link between social capital and cheating, alcohol use, and violence using a self-reported survey involving a sample of Turkish university students. The relatively comprehensive measures of social capital included both parental social capital (membership in organizations, political engagement, book/newspaper readership, parental control over the youth's social network, and religion) and youth social capital (civic intolerance, religion, influential connection, social exchange among classmates, membership in organizations, trust, and voting). Findings tended to indicate that most social capital measures were not consistently significant and that social capital had both negative and positive aspects. Social capital deprivation, a 'new' concept, was for the first time used and tested: it had a positive impact on deviant behavior. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.