Social Capital in Action: Alignment of Parental Support in Adolescents' Transition to Postsecondary Education

This article examines the effects of social capital in the transition to postsecondary education, in particular, transitions to selective colleges. Refining the theory of social capital with the concept of alignment between parents' and adolescents' goals and actions, we emphasize the complementarity of extra-group ties as social capital through which parents can effectively bridge resources and information to adolescents, enabling them to make informed choices about college. This study explores conditions that ease the transition to college, especially for students who are disadvantaged (e.g., children of immigrants). Using data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988-94, a multinomial logistic regression analysis that differentiates among students who choose different pathways after high school graduation (a two-year college, a four-year college or no postsecondary enrollment). A Heckman selection model is used to predict the selectivity of four-year colleges attended by students. Results show that alignment of parents' and students' goals increases students' odds of attending a postsecondary institution in the year after high school graduation. The effect of parents' education on the selectivity of the college attended is also dependent on aligned ambition and aligned action between parents and adolescents. For example, active participation in postsecondary school guidance programs by parents is more beneficial to students whose parents have lower levels of educational attainment.

[1]  James N. Baron,et al.  Resources and Relationships: Social Networks and Mobility in the Workplace , 1997 .

[2]  Ricardo D. Stanton-Salazar,et al.  Social capital and the reproduction of inequality: information networks among Mexican-origin high school students , 1995 .

[3]  Robert Wuthnow,et al.  Religious Involvement and Status‐Bridging Social Capital , 2002 .

[4]  A. Portes,et al.  Embeddedness and Immigration: Notes on the Social Determinants of Economic Action , 1993, American Journal of Sociology.

[5]  A. Portes.  The new second generation , 1996 .

[6]  G. King,et al.  Analyzing Incomplete Political Science Data: An Alternative Algorithm for Multiple Imputation , 2001, American Political Science Review.

[7]  R. Burt.  The contingent value of social capital. , 1997 .

[8]  Annette Lareau,et al.  Home Advantage: Social Class and Parental Intervention in Elementary Education. , 1991 .

[9]  Patricia M. McDonough,et al.  Choosing Colleges: How Social Class and Schools Structure Opportunity , 1999 .

[10]  G. Duncan,et al.  Parents' extrafamilial resources and children's school attainment , 1998 .

[11]  Ricardo D. Stanton-Salazar.  A Social Capital Framework for Understanding the Socialization of Racial Minority Children and Youths , 1997 .

[12]  R. Burt.  Structural Holes versus Network Closure as Social Capital , 2001 .

[13]  Yu Xie,et al.  Revisiting Racial Differences in College Attendance: The Role of Historically Black Colleges and Universities , 2003, American Sociological Review.

[14]  William J. Carbonaro,et al.  Opening the debate on closure and schooling outcomes: Comment on Morgan and Sørensen , 1999 .

[15]  Philip L. Martin,et al.  The Economic Sociology of Immigration , 1998 .

[16]  Scott L. Thomas,et al.  Longer-Term Economic Effects of College Selectivity and Control , 2003 .

[17]  James C. Hearn.  Academic and Nonacademic Influences on the College Destinations of 1980 High School Graduates. , 1991 .

[18]  David P. Baker,et al.  Shadow Education and Allocation in Formal Schooling: Transition to University in Japan , 1992, American Journal of Sociology.

[19]  Patricia M. McDonough,et al.  Access, Equity, and the Privatization of College Counseling , 1997 .

[20]  B. Series,et al.  Barron's Profiles of American Colleges , 1984 .

[21]  M. Cochran.  Extending Families: The Social Networks of Parents and their Children , 1990 .

[22]  B. Schneider,et al.  The Ambitious Generation , 1999 .

[23]  Carl L. Bankston,et al.  Social Capital as Process: The Meanings and Problems of a Theoretical Metaphor , 2002 .

[24]  Thomas D. Snyder,et al.  Digest of Education Statistics 2002 , 2001 .

[25]  A. Portes.  Social Capital: Its Origins and Applications in Modern Sociology , 1998 .

[26]  R. McNeal,et al.  Parental Involvement as Social Capital: Differential Effectiveness on Science Achievement, Truancy, and Dropping Out , 1999 .

[27]  J. Richardson.  Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education , 1986 .

[28]  Joel Podolny.  A Status-Based Model of Market Competition , 1993, American Journal of Sociology.

[29]  R. Schoen,et al.  Family Demography, Social Theory, and Investment in Social Capital , 1999 .

[30]  Barbara Schneider,et al.  The ambitious generation : America's teenagers, motivated but directionless , 2000 .

[31]  J. Teachman,et al.  Social Capital and the Generation of Human Capital , 1997 .

[32]  Annette Lareau.  Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life , 2003 .

[33]  Thomas D. Snyder,et al.  Digest of Education Statistics , 1994 .

[34]  A. Portes,et al.  Legacies: The Story of the Immigrant Second Generation , 2004 .

[35]  J. Heckman.  Sample selection bias as a specification error , 1979 .

[36]  Yongmin Sun.  The Contextual Effects of Community Social Capital on Academic Performance , 1999 .

[37]  Edward O. Laumann,et al.  Community Structure as Interorganizational Linkages , 1978 .

[38]  Brian Powell,et al.  Reconsidering the effects of sibling configuration: Recent advances and challenges , 2002 .

[39]  C. Koprowicz.  The Cost-Sharing Award Program for State Legislative Research in Education: A Final Report to the United States Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement. , 1988 .

[40]  N. Lin,et al.  Social structure and network analysis , 1985 .

[41]  P. Bourdieu.  Forms of Capital , 2002 .

[42]  C. Hartman.  Students on the Move. , 2006 .

[43]  B. Schneider,et al.  Students on the Move: Residential and Educational Mobility in America's Schools. , 1999 .

[44]  D. Baker,et al.  Mothers' Strategies for Children's School Achievement: Managing the Transition to High School. , 1986 .

[45]  Robert J. Sampson,et al.  Beyond Social Capital: Spatial Dynamics of Collective Efficacy for Children , 1999, American Sociological Review.

[46]  Carl L. Bankston,et al.  Social Capital and the Adaptation of the Second Generation: The Case of Vietnamese Youth in New Orleans 1 , 1994 .

[47]  Stephen L. Morgan,et al.  Parental Networks, Social Closure, and Mathematics Learning: A Test of Coleman's Social Capital Explanation of School Effects , 1999, American Sociological Review.

[48]  Elizabeth Monk-Turner.  The Occupational Achievements of Community and Four-Year College Entrants. , 1990 .

[49]  Y. Ben-Porath,et al.  The F-connection: families friends and firms and the organization of exchange , 1980 .

[50]  J. Rosenbaum,et al.  Pathways into Work: Short- and Long-term Effects of Personal and Institutional Ties. , 1999 .

[51]  Rebecca L. Sandefur,et al.  A PARADIGM FOR SOCIAL CAPITAL , 1998 .

[52]  J. Coleman,et al.  Social Capital in the Creation of Human Capital , 1988, American Journal of Sociology.

[53]  Ricardo D. Stanton-Salazar.  Manufacturing Hope and Despair: The School and Kin Support Networks of U.S.-Mexican Youth (Sociology of Education Series) , 2001 .

[54]  S. Davies,et al.  Fields of Study, College Selectivity, and Student Inequalities in Higher Education , 1997 .

[55]  M. Hallinan,et al.  Conceptualizing and Measuring School Social Networks , 1999, American Sociological Review.

[56]  R. Burt.  THE GENDER OF SOCIAL CAPITAL , 1998 .

[57]  Nan Lin,et al.  Inequality in Social Capital , 2000 .

[58]  Sara McLanahan,et al.  Residential Mobility and Children's Social Capital: Evidence from an Experiment* , 2003 .

[59]  S. Dika,et al.  Applications of Social Capital in Educational Literature: A Critical Synthesis , 2002 .

[60]  Mark S. Granovetter.  The Strength of Weak Ties , 1973, American Journal of Sociology.