How Durable is Social Capital?: Family and School Social Bonds and College Enrollment and Completion

• In Event: 523 - Section on Sociology of Education Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 05. Social Capital, Social Network, and Higher Education

Abstract

A growing body of literature concerning the efficacy of social capital as a valuable resource for children and youth joins research underscoring the importance of social capital as broadly valuable in attainment processes for a number of adult outcomes. However, relatively little is known about whether social capital is a durable good, or to what extent social capital can be effectively used to achieve attainment goals more distant from the creation of that capital. We examine the durability of returns to social capital in family and school settings on academic achievement, measured as college enrollment two years after high school completion and college completion eight years after high school completion, using structural equation models on a nationally representative data set of 11,365 high school students in the United States. Our findings suggest that while family social capital continues to have strong associations with outcomes increasingly distant from the initial creation of that capital, school social capital quickly loses its efficacy. These results suggest that social capital can be a durable good, but that the settings in which social capital is created can affect the extent of that durability.

Authors

• Mikaela Dufur, Brigham Young University

• Toby L. Parcel, North Carolina State University

• David B. Braudt, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• John P. Hoffmann, University of South Carolina