Building Different Foundations: Variation in the Effects of Social Support for College-Going by Race/Ethnicity

• In Event: 21020 - Section on Sociology of Education Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 2: College Admissions and Stratification

Abstract

Although high school graduates take different postsecondary pathways, those who earn college degrees remain economically and socially advantaged in the United States. Social support from families and schools is often championed for promoting college-going, but little research has considered how support benefits students differentially by race and ethnicity. Furthermore, the tendency to study family support and school support separately overlooks how families and schools act jointly to shape students’ outcomes. In this paper, we investigate the long-term effects of early high school social support on two-year and four-year program enrollment after high school. Analyzing data from the High School Longitudinal Study, we find that the effects of family support and school support vary considerably: there are conditions under which each type of support encourages and discourages college program enrollment. Importantly, we also find that heightened levels of one type of support may compensate for low levels of the other. In challenging the assumption that social support is universally beneficial, we show how support can lead to different postsecondary pathways. By disproportionately steering certain students towards, and others away from, different types of degree programs, social support may inadvertently contribute to racial and ethnic inequalities in college program enrollment and beyond.

Authors

• Christopher Chad Kaufman, Purdue University

• Linda Renzulli, Purdue University

• Amy Petts

• Rebecca L. Boylan