Family Transmission of Social Capital: Differences by Social Class, Education and Public Sector Employment

Abstract

This paper investigates the role of families in the transmission of tendencies to engage in social and civic activities. The relationship between parents' social class, sector of employment, education and social engagement with their children's civic and social engagement is investigated. It was provisionally hypothesized that graduate parents, particularly those working in the health, education or welfare services, would be more likely to be involved in civic activities, and that they would transmit this pattern to their children. Other forms of social engagement were also examined. Data was drawn from the British Household Panel Study. The survey yielded a sample of approximately 1500 young people and approximately 1200 families. It was found that middle-class parents (particularly professionals) were more likely to be involved in civic activities and that this was also true of their children. A similar effect was found for involvement in religious activities, although the rates of religious activity were low. Little difference by social class was found for Sports and Social activity, although there was a trend towards more involvement for children of managers. The children of managers were involved in a wider range of social organisations. Models exploring the effects of parental class, education and public sector employment were fitted. These seemed to suggest that parental education, particularly mother's education, has an especially strong association with civic activity among children. However, the association was only there for graduate (or sub-degree) mothers who work in the public sector. It seems likely that a particular configuration of professional graduate employment in the state sector has developed in the twentieth century which is associated with civic activity. The results are discussed in the light of the recent university expansion and shift of graduate employment from the public to the private sector.