Family and city life confer hidden educational advantages on privileged children.
Evidence
Ordinarily, in the examination of the effects of various factors on achievement in school, “family background” is considered a single entity, distinguished from schooling in its effects. But there is not merely a single “family background”; family background is analytically separable into at least three different components: financial capital, human capital, and social capital. Financial capital is approximately measured by the family’s wealth or income. It provides the physical resources that can aid achievement: a fixed place in the home for studying, materials to aid learning, the financial resources that smooth family problems. Human capital is approximately measured by parents’ education and provides the potential for a cognitive environment for the child that aids learning. — Coleman, SocialCapitalCreation-1988, 139 (
#expands, via linked claim)
It is of course true that children are strongly affected by the human capital possessed by their parents. But this human capital may be irrelevant to outcomes for children if parents are not an important part of their children’s lives, if their human capital is employed exclusively at work or elsewhere outside the home. The social capital of the family is the relations between children and parents (and, when families include other members, relationships with them as well). That is, if the human capital possessed by parents is not complemented by social capital embodied in family relations, it is irrelevant to the child’s educational growth that the parent has a great deal, or a small amount, of human capital. — Coleman, SocialCapitalCreation-1988, 148 (
#qualifies, via linked claim)
The consequence of this closure is, as in the case of the wholesale diamond market or in other similar communities, a set of effective sanctions that can monitor and guide behavior. In the community in figure 2b, parents A and D can discuss their children’s activities and come to some consensus about standards and about sanctions. Parent A is reinforced by parent D in sanctioning his child’s actions; beyond that, parent D constitutes a monitor not only for his own child, C, but also for the other child, B. Thus, the existence of intergenerational closure provides a quantity of social capital available to each parent in raising his children-not only in matters related to school but in other matters as well. — Coleman, SocialCapitalCreation-1988, 125 (
#expands, via linked claim)
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Family background splits into financial, human, and social capital that affect achievement differently — Coleman, SocialCapitalCreation-1988, 139; Intergenerational closure among parents generates social capital and effective sanctions for raising children. — Coleman, SocialCapitalCreation-1988, 125; Parental education only benefits children when strong family relationships transmit it. — Coleman, SocialCapitalCreation-1988, 148 (+2 more)
Related
- Family background splits into financial, human, and social capital that affect achievement differently (similarity 0.87)
- Parental education only benefits children when strong family relationships transmit it. (similarity 0.87)
- Parents low in formal schooling can still provide high social capital for children’s education (similarity 0.87)
- Intergenerational closure among parents generates social capital and effective sanctions for raising children. (similarity 0.85)
- Parental human capital only benefits a child’s development when family relationships activate it. (similarity 0.85)
- Effective parenting norms depend on closure across generations between families (similarity 0.83)
- Strong parent-child relations are required to transmit parental human capital (similarity 0.82)
- Communal social capital shapes children’s development beyond family resources. (similarity 0.82)
Broader Connections
- Family background splits into financial, human, and social capital that affect achievement differently
#expands(0.80) — Coleman, SocialCapitalCreation-1988, 139 - Parental education only benefits children when strong family relationships transmit it.
#qualifies(0.78) — Coleman, SocialCapitalCreation-1988, 148 - Intergenerational closure among parents generates social capital and effective sanctions for raising children.
#expands(0.72) — Coleman, SocialCapitalCreation-1988, 125