Elizabeth Warnick and Dr. John Hoffmann, Sociology
The troubling trend of increasing economic inequality in the United States can be partially attributed to one’s background; every person in the United States is born with a degree of advantage or disadvantage. However, the extent to which this initial inequality affects labor market outcomes, such as income, has yet to be clearly defined. An individual’s background can be understood in terms of capital, which has been conceptualized in three ways: financial, human and social (Coleman 1988). Family financial capital is commonly measured by income, while human capital can be measured by parental education level. Social capital is a more ambiguous concept but has been defined as the transmission and creation of information, obligations, and norms across relationships (Coleman 1988). Previous studies have used family structure, parental involvement, parental attachment, and parental supervision to measure family social capital (Hoffmann and Dufur 2008). While each kind of capital is important, high levels of social capital ensure that parents can effectively transmit financial and human capital to their children. Capital is created primarily in the home and then in school (Parcel, Dufur, Zito 2010). Family social capital tends to have an earlier and greater positive effect on academic and behavioral outcomes than school social capital, but both are important arenas for the creation and accumulation of capital (Crosnoe 2004; Parcel and Dufur 2009).
Since the study of capital on labor market outcomes is a developing area of interest, there has yet to be substantial research done on the effects of capital accumulated during teenage years on post-college labor market outcomes. Research shows that college graduates who come from higher socioeconomic-status families tend to have higher incomes post-college (Walpole 2003), and that skills acquired in high school have a positive impact on post-college wages (Murnane et al. 2001). A study of Duke University students found that family social capital did not actually impact college academic outcomes for financially well-off undergraduates (Martin 2009), but more research must be done to fully assess the influence of family background, specifically family social capital, on post-college income.
Because family social capital is more salient than either human or financial capital, I predicted that high levels of family social capital acquired during the teenage years would have a greater positive effect than either family financial or human capital on an individual’s income one year after graduating from college.
To test this hypothesis, we used the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997. School capital was not included in this particular analysis because of accessibility issues and because of research which suggests that family capital tends to have an earlier, greater effect on academic and behavioral outcomes than school capital. Information about family capital was obtained from the first wave of the NLSY97 (n = 8984 youths aged 13 to 17 and parent respondents). The analysis sample (n = 1245) included the individuals who obtained a bachelor’s degree before 2006. Gross household income from 1996 was used to measure family financial capital, and the highest grade level of residential parent education in 1997 was used to measure family human capital. The dependent variable was the respondent’s total income received the year after they obtained a bachelor’s degree. Structural equation modeling was used to measure family social capital and test the hypothesis. In line with previous research which states that family structure, parental attachment, parental involvement, and parental supervision are all components of family social capital, our final measure of family social capital included fourteen ordinal level variables from the youth questionnaire related to these concepts (e.g. father and mother praise respondent for doing well, father is supportive, father and mother know respondents’ friends and friends’ parents, etc.). This family social capital model had a CFI (comparative fit index) of .954, indicating good model fit.
When control variables such as gender, age, and race were included in the analysis, family social capital was the strongest, most significant indicator of income one year after college (-.108***). Parental education level was significantly related to and had a negative effect on respondents’ income the first year after college (-.074*). Of the three classifications of capital, only family financial capital had a positive effect on respondents’ income the first year after college (.090**).
As predicted, family social capital was the strongest, most significant indicator of income of the three classifications of family capital, though the relationship was negative rather than positive. Because these results were surprising, we examined the association between family social capital and 1997 PIAT math test scores for the 1245 youths included in the analysis. The results were consistent with previous research: there was a positive relationship between family capital and test scores, suggesting that our conceptualization of family social capital was accurate. One explanation for the negative relationship between family social capital and post-college income is that while strong relationships with parents are positive indicators in terms of graduating from high school and enrolling in college, these relationships become less influential as an individual attends and graduates from college and expands his or her social networks beyond family to teachers and peers.
I presented this research at the Pacific Sociological Association Conference in Seattle in March 2011 as well as at the Mary Lou Fulton Conference in April 2011. The experience of working on a mentored research project and presenting the results has been invaluable in terms of my preparation for graduate school. This particular analysis is only one component of an ongoing research project regarding the effects of family and school capital on different outcomes, and I will continue to be involved in this project as I begin my studies in the sociology graduate program this fall. Future research will include measures of high school and college capital, as well as the respondents’ majors and GPAs. While this preliminary analysis does not provide a complete explanation for the link between family capital accumulated in the teenage years and later labor market outcomes, it does demonstrate that family financial, social and human capital significantly impact post-college income.1
References
- Coleman, James. 1988. “Social Capital in the Creation of Human Capital.” American Journal of Sociology 94:S94-S120.
- Crosnoe, Robert. 2004. “Social Capital and the Interplay of Families and Schools.” Journal of Marriage and Family 66:267-280.
- Hoffmann, John P. and Mikaela J. Dufur. 2008. Family and School Capital Effects on Delinquency: Substitutes or Complements?” Sociological Perspectives 51:29-62.
- Martin, Nathan D. 2009. “Social Capital, Academic Achievement, and Postgraduation Plans at an Elite, Private University.” Sociological Perspectives 52(2):185-210.
- Murnane, Richard J., John B. Willett, M. Jay Braatz, and Yves Duhaldeborde. 2001. “Do Different Dimensions of Male High School Students’ Skills Predict Labor Market Success a Decade Later? Evidence from the NLSY.” Economics of Education Review 20(4):311-320.
- Parcel, Toby and Mikaela Dufur. 2009. “Family and School Capital Explaining Regional Variation in Reading and Math Achievement.” Research in Social Stratification and Mobility 27:157 – 176.
- Parcel, Toby L., Mikaela J. Dufur, and Rena Cornell Zito. 2010. “Capital at Home and at School: A Review and Synthesis.” Journal of Marriage and Family 72:828-846.
- Walpole, Mary Beth. 2003. “Socioeconomic Status and College: How SES Affects College Experiences and Outcomes.” Review of Higher Education 27(1):45-73.