Children need adults’ presence and attention to access parents’ human capital

Evidence

Social capital within the family that gives the child access to the adult’s human capital depends both on the physical presence of adults in the family and on the attention given by the adults to the child. The physical absence of adults may be described as a structural deficiency in family social capital. The most prominent element of structural deficiency in modern families is the single-parent family. However, the nuclear family itself, in which one or both parents work outside the home, can be seen as structurally deficient, lacking the social capital that comes with the presence of parents during the day, or with grandparents or aunts and uncles in or near the household. — Coleman, SocialCapitalCreation-1988, 154

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines ‘structural deficiency’ in family social capital, distinguishing single-parent homes from two-parent working households as both structurally lacking.
• XREF: connects to: Strong parent-child relations are required to transmit parental human capital — Coleman, SocialCapitalCreation-1988, 155; Effective parenting norms depend on closure across generations between families — Coleman, SocialCapitalCreation-1988, 121; Parental human capital only benefits a child’s development when family relationships activate it. — Coleman, SocialCapitalCreation-1988, 148

Related

• Strong parent-child relations are required to transmit parental human capital (similarity 0.92)
• Parental human capital only benefits a child’s development when family relationships activate it. (similarity 0.87)
• Parental education only benefits children when strong family relationships transmit it. (similarity 0.86)
• A working nuclear family lacks structural social capital. (similarity 0.85)
• Parents low in formal schooling can still provide high social capital for children’s education (similarity 0.84)
• Communal social capital shapes children’s development beyond family resources. (similarity 0.82)
• Family background splits into financial, human, and social capital that affect achievement differently (similarity 0.81)
• Adult-to-child ratio measures family social capital available for schooling. (similarity 0.81)
• Declining family and community capital will reduce human capital unless formal organizations substitute (similarity 0.80)
• Community social capital substitutes for missing family social capital. (similarity 0.79)
• Effective parenting norms depend on closure across generations between families (similarity 0.79)
• Declining family and community bonds shrink each generation’s human capital. (similarity 0.79)
• Intergenerational closure among parents generates social capital and effective sanctions for raising children. (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Parental human capital only benefits a child’s development when family relationships activate it. #corroborates (0.90) — Coleman, SocialCapitalCreation-1988, 148
• Effective parenting norms depend on closure across generations between families #corroborates (0.72) — Coleman, SocialCapitalCreation-1988, 121