Exploring Junior Residents’ Barriers in Mobilizing Social Capital and Their Coping: A Qualitative Ego Social Network Study

Residents face significant barriers in mobilizing social capital, particularly with supervisors. To cope, they draw on different parts of their network for emotional support and expertise. Our results suggest that existing help-seeking models, such as Borgatti and Cross's, require refinement: power dynamics contribute to the perceived 'costs' of help-seeking, and uncertainty about others' supportive potential reflects the influence of role ambiguity and relational comfort.