Roles, Relationships, Resources, and Renal Exchange: Applying Social Capital Theory to Role Effects on Living Kidney Donation Behaviors

Two largely separate schools of sociological theory seek to explain to whom we turn in times of need. The first argues that we turn to network members who occupy socially important roles, highlighting how support behaviors cluster in certain social roles (i.e., role effects). The second argues that we turn to network members possessing relevant resources and with whom we have strong ties. The authors unite these perspectives, examining how role effects on living kidney donation behavior are explained by role groups’ endowments of situationally relevant resources and tie strength. The authors analyze two original data sets: a sample of kidney transplantation patients reporting on their social networks (n = 70 patients and 1,421 ties) and a separate sample surveying kidney disease patients’ family members (n = 1,560). The authors find that role effects on living kidney donation behavior are largely explained by the conjunction of relevant resources and tie strength, which offers several key lessons for medical support-seeking research.