Abstract
The objective of this quantitative study was to examine the influence of Social Capital on the academic achievement of Mexican diaspora university students enrolled at a four-year public university in Northern California. The Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey, and the European Quality of Life Survey were utilized to create a cross-sectional survey to collect primary data from students. Social Capital was explained by their: (a) personal relationships; (b) social network support; (c) civic engagement; and (d) trust and cooperative norms. Multivariate regression equation modeling was used to examine the relationship between students’ academic success, as measured by GPA, and Social Capital. The findings focused on generalized trust, trust in government institutions, and trust in diverse groups of people. This study contributed to the research by scholars and international entities in their efforts to measure Social Capital. The current research with Mexican diaspora students in California utilized Social Capital Theory which allowed the researcher to find useful evidence that calls for policy-makers and stakeholders to endorse an institutional Social Capital strategy and trust-building measures that can help decrease the opportunity gap, enfranchise this binational, bilingual, and bicultural diaspora, and help guarantee their competitiveness in the 21st-century global labor market.