Dika, S. L. (2012). Relations with faculty as social capital for college students: Evidence from Puerto Rico. Journal of College Student Development, 53(4), 596-610.

In this study, a social capital framework was adopted to investigate the extent to which academically focused interactions with faculty and other institutional agents serve as social capital for college students, using National Survey of Student Engagement data from a large, science, technology, engineering and math-focused institution in Puerto Rico. As expected, previous achievement variables were the strongest factors in explaining college grade point average. Perceived quality of relations with faculty members was more important than frequency of interactions in explaining performance. Further research utilizing more specific measures of student-faculty interaction is necessary. Institutional interventions can help increase student-faculty interaction and cultivate broadened access to this form of social capital.