Adolescent social capital: An intergenerational resource?

Abstract

IntroductionThere is abundant literature about the benefits of social capital in youth, but less is known of the origins of social capital. This study explores whether adolescents' social capital is shaped by their parents' social capital, their family's socioeconomic status (SES), and the socioeconomic profile of their neighborhood.MethodsThe study uses cross‐sectional survey data gathered from 12 to 13‐year‐old adolescents and their parents (n = 163) in Southwest Finland. For the analysis, adolescents' social capital was disaggregated into four dimensions: social networks, social trust, tendency to receive help, and tendency to provide help. Parents' social capital was measured both directly (parents' self‐reports) and indirectly (adolescents' perceptions of their parents' sociability). The associations with the hypothesized predictors were analyzed using structural equation modeling.ResultsThe results suggest that social capital is not directly intergenerationally transmissible the way some biologically heritable traits are. Yet, parents' social capital shapes youngsters' perception of their sociability, and that, in turn, predicts each dimension of adolescents' social capital. Family SES is positively related to young people's reciprocal tendency, but the pathway flows indirectly through parents' social capital and adolescents' perception of parents' sociability. Conversely, a disadvantaged socioeconomic neighborhood is directly negatively associated with adolescents' social trust and tendency to receive help.ConclusionsThis study suggests that, in the studied Finnish, relatively egalitarian context, social capital is (at least partly) transmissible from parents to children, not directly, but indirectly through the mechanism of social learning.

Connecting the dots: How parent support shapes career readiness through psychological capital

“…As a result, they have no concept of what vocation they will pursue in the future. Indeed, research indicates that adolescent perceptions of their parents' attitudes and actions can influence various outcomes (Tuominen & Tikkanen, 2023).…”

Emphasizing symbolic capital: its superior influence on the association between family socioeconomic status and adolescent subjective well-being uncovered by a large-scale multivariate network analysis

“…In contrast, a hierarchical structure exists in adolescent social ecology. Adolescents can categorize or rank themselves or their peers based on sociodemographic status, power, or prestige ( Rubin et al, 2006 ; Pattiselanno et al, 2015 ; Grapsas et al, 2021 ; Tuominen and Tikkanen, 2023 ). Adolescents may be more sensitive to, and influenced by, parental educational attainment and occupational status, as these factors reflect position and prestige.…”