Intergenerational Closure Research Articles

Knowing me, knowing you: Socio-economic status and (segregation in) peer and parental networks in primary school

Students of different socio-economic status (SES) backgrounds are sorted into different schools. While integrating schools seems an easy solution to enhance inter-group interaction, this is yet an empirical question as we know little about how networks structure along SES lines in school. We examine the tendency for friendship and parental networks in primary school to structure by SES. We furthermore explore the role of the local school context. To do so, we collected multiplex classroom network data among Dutch students in 68 classrooms (55 schools) in their final year of primary school (grade 6; age 11–12). We link these sociometric data to register data, and test our hypotheses using cross-sectional exponential random graph models and meta-analysis techniques. Findings show that the networks of primary school students and their parents display a tendency for same-SES over cross-SES ties, net of opportunity structures. We do not find evidence for SES differences in the strength of SES homophily. Descriptive analyses show SES disparities in the extent to which parents have ties with the parents of their children’s friends (i.e., intergenerational closure), but these disparities disappear when controlling for other tie-generating mechanisms using ERGMs.

The dynamics of intergenerational closure and family networks of social cohesion.

We investigate the correlation of ties among school-children's parents with violence in schools, and two mechanisms of intergenerational closure (IC). Coleman described ties among parents of befriended children as IC. Until now, IC indicated social capital in schools and neighborhoods, but existing evidence is rather ambiguous and does not utilize network data. According to "top-down." IC, children establish network ties because of the acquaintance among their parents. "Bottom-up" IC implies that children make friends first and then their parents get involved. We use longitudinal social network data from k = 10 school classes and N = 238 adolescents and disentangle the two different dynamics of IC by applying Bayesian stochastic actor-oriented models (SAOMs) for network evolution. SAOMs show positive "top-down" and "bottom-up" effects on IC, with the latter being considerably stronger.

Patterns of Socialization among New Latino Immigrants in Comparative Historical Perspective

Education is a bridge enabling children of low-skilled immigrants to access higher tiered professions in a segmented labor force in order to experience socio-economic gains and social mobility. Historically, Catholic immigrants (Irish, Polish, Italian and German) have been served by the parish school which provided a basis for household integration and economic advancement in American society. This paper explores the relationship between the parish school as an agent of socialization and children of new Catholic Latino immigrants. Comparative historical analysis of old and new patterns of immigration serves to demonstrate how the mediating role of the parish school has changed. Qualitative analysis contributes to a theory of institutionally generated social capital which is operationalized by measures of communitarian socialization. Using data from the Consortium of Chicago School Research, I use ordered logit regression to measure the effect of high school socialization patterns on student’s pro-social outcomes. I find that contrary to national data, Catholic high schools in Chicago are enrolling higher percentages of Latinos, a majority of whom are children of immigrants. A school climate characterized by affective support and inspirational ideology are significantly related to pro-social outcomes, while intergenerational closure is not. These findings are important because the parish school has a legacy of contributing to conditions necessary for children of immigrants to experience upward mobility.

The social ecology of intergenerational closure in school class networks. Socio-spatial conditions of parents’ norm generation and their effects on students’ interpersonal conflicts

In this paper, we investigate how protective effects of intergenerational closure correspond with conflict networks in school classes. Taking a multilevel ecological perspective, we also consider networks’ socio-spatial conditions. In a first step, we use ERGMs to analyze the association between parental contact and students’ friendship ties, i.e., intergenerational closure (IC). Then, we utilize spatial regressions to analyze direct and moderating effects of a school’s neighborhood on conflicts in the 135 German class networks (N = 3143 student measurements). In accordance with Coleman’s theoretical notions, we find consistent negative effects of IC on the (standardized) density of the conflict networks. Moreover, we show that IC’s impact is particularly strong in neighborhoods with a relatively high concentration of minorities. The results are in line with our theoretical considerations on multilevel network ecologies and the selective pressure of IC against conflict ties. Practically, our results provide evidence that fostering connections among parents (e.g., by implementing opportunity structures for parents to meet) might help to prevent deviating behavior in schools, especially in neighborhoods with relatively large proportions of ethnic minorities.

Social Capital and Student Achievement: An Intervention-Based Test of Theory

Social capital is widely cited as benefiting children’s school performance, but close inspection of existing research yields inconsistent findings. Focusing on intergenerational closure among parents of children in the same school, this article draws from a field experiment to test the effects of social capital on children’s achievement in reading and mathematics. When children were in first grade, their schools were randomly assigned to an after-school family-based intervention that boosts social capital. A total of 52 schools in Phoenix, Arizona, and San Antonio, Texas, containing over 3,000 first graders, participated in the study, with half the schools in each city assigned to the treatment group and half serving as no-treatment controls. Two years later, no differences in third-grade achievement were evident between children who had been in treatment schools versus control schools. By contrast, nonexperimental analyses of survey-based measures of social capital suggest positive effects on achievement, indicating that naïve estimates based on survey measures may be upwardly biased by unobserved conditions that lead to both stronger ties among parents and higher test scores. This article adds to a growing literature that raises doubts about the effects of this type of social capital for achievement outcomes among young children.

Older Neighbors and The Neighborhood Context of Child Well-Being: Pathways to Enhancing Social Capital for Children.

Drawing on Coleman's concept of social capital, researchers have investigated how the quality of neighborhood social networks influences child development and well-being. The role of non-kin older neighbors in advancing child well-being through the enhancement of social capital, however, has been under-studied. Our objective was to delineate specific pathways through which non-kin older neighbors contribute to neighborhood quality for children and families and potentially advance child well-being. We examined open-ended interview data from 400 parents who cared for at least one child under 18years of age and resided in 20 neighborhoods in Cleveland, Ohio. A subsample of 113 parents connected older neighbors to neighborhood quality for families and children in their narratives. Our analysis identified three primary pathways through which parents positively linked older neighbors to neighborhood quality: older neighbors support parents and children, promote neighborhood safety, and contribute to neighborhood residential stability. These contributions are evidence of intergenerational closure, reciprocated exchange, and informal social control working together to create social capital in neighborhoods for children. It is by enhancing social capital that older neighbors potentially improve child well-being. We discuss the implications of our findings for neighborhood research and practice.

Does school choice have implications for parents’ social capital and adolescents’ academic outcomes?

School choice has received national attention in the United States from policymakers and professionals as a way to improve parents’ social capital and subsequent academic outcomes for adolescents. However, limited work has empirically tested the links among school choice, social capital, and academic outcomes, particularly for high school students. Guided by theories of social capital and Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological Model of Human Development, this study used multi-year data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (N = 9350) to examine the associations among school choice, social capital (intergenerational closure and perceived inclusion in school decision-making), and academic outcomes (cognitive test scores and educational attainment) for a diverse population of adolescents. Consistent with previous work, findings revealed positive associations between social capital and academic outcomes, along with differences based on family socioeconomic status. However, contrary to hypotheses, findings revealed no evidence of links between school choice, parental social capital, and subsequent adolescent academic outcomes. Implications for research, practice, and policy are discussed.

The Role of Intergenerational Networks in Students’ School Performance in Two Differentiated Educational Systems: A Comparison of Between- and Within-Individual Estimates

In this article, we study the relationship between intergenerational networks in classrooms (i.e., relationships among parents in classrooms, and between parents and their children’s classmates) and students’ grades. Using panel data on complete classroom networks of approximately 3,000 adolescents and their parents in approximately 200 classes in both Germany and the Netherlands, we compare estimates based on between-student differences in intergenerational networks (i.e., between-individual estimates) to estimates based on changes students experience in their intergenerational networks over time (i.e., within-individual estimates). We also examine how the relationship between intergenerational networks and grades is contingent on students’ location in the educational system (i.e., their ability track). When considering between-individual estimates, we find some support for a positive relationship between intergenerational networks and grades. However, we find no robust support when considering within-individual estimates. The findings suggest that between-individual estimates, which most previous research has relied on, may be confounded by unobserved differences across individuals. We find little support for variations in these estimates across ability tracks. We discuss the implications for Coleman’s social capital theory on intergenerational closure.

Social Capital, Parenting, and African American Families

African American parents and children are embedded within diverse social networks that cut across social contexts. Using a concurrent mixed-method approach, this study explored mechanisms through which kinship- and community-based social capital (i.e., intergenerational closure) may be associated with children’s own competences at accessing social capital, as well as mothers’ perspectives on the social-relational processes adhered in intergenerational closure, and on its importance for parenting and socialization goals. Third-grade children (N = 149) and their mothers participated in structured home interviews, and a subsample of mothers (n = 10) participated in semi-structured qualitative interviews. Path analysis (LISREL) indicated that kinship-based intergenerational closure was positively associated with communication between mothers and children (e.g., peers and friendships, importance of talking, life lessons) which was positively associated with children’s self-efficacy in accessing intergenerational social resources (i.e., from adults). Community-based intergenerational closure was positively associated with parental community engagement. Parents involved in community organizations engaged in more parent-to-parent communication regarding parenting and childrearing issues. Greater communication between parents was positively associated with children’s self-efficacy. Qualitative analyses indicated that mothers cultivated intergenerational closure across social contexts, that supported parenting and reinforced values, norms, and socialization goals, relying on network processes as theorized by James Coleman. This study highlights the mechanisms that link kinship- and community-based social capital to child social competences, as well as African American mothers’ perspectives on the meanings of social relationships when there is intergenerational closure. Moreover, the study illustrates the applicability of Coleman’s theory among economically diverse, southern, African American families.

The George Wilson Effect: Does Intergenerational Closure and Collective Efficacy Reduce Juvenile Delinquency in a Neighborhood?

ABSTRACTA substantial amount of research found crime and delinquency to be lower in areas with stronger neighborhood communities, but the casual mechanism behind this association remains debated. The current study contributes to this debate by examining the association of two forms of social capital with rates of delinquency. The first, collective efficacy, has been widely studied, while the second, intergenerational closure has not. While the results support previous research indicating the primary role of collective efficacy as a proactive factor against delinquency, results for intergenerational closure suggest the influence of neighborhood community on delinquency does not always result in lower delinquency.

Links Between Contexts and Middle to Late Childhood Social-Emotional Development.

Guided by the social-emotional learning (SEL) framework, we studied developmental trajectory patterns of five key competency outcomes spanning middle through late childhood: altruism, empathy, self-efficacy, aggression, and hyperactivity. We then assessed their links to middle childhood home, parental, and community contexts. Data from the Institute of Education Sciences' Social and Character Development Program, which comprised nearly 2,400 elementary school students who were followed from Grades 3 through 5, were analyzed using growth mixture modeling. Three trajectory groups emerged for each outcome, which were linked to childhood contexts. Positive parenting was associated with a lower likelihood of following a negative empathy trajectory among children. Neighborhood intergenerational closure promoted a stable self-efficacy trajectory. Residing in a high-risk community was linked to increasing normative beliefs about aggression. These findings suggest an important role of contexts in influencing childhood social-emotional development in the later elementary school years.

The role of parental involvement in academic achievement trajectories of elementary school children with Southeast Asian and Taiwanese mothers

Drawing upon Coleman's concepts of social capital, which emphasized the potential roles of resources inside and outside the family in affecting children's academic performance, this study explores the parental involvement gap between children of Southeast Asian mothers and children of Taiwanese mothers, and analyzes to what extent parental involvement is associated with trajectories of achievement in elementary school. The sample comprised 8810 fourth to sixth graders. Resultsshowed that new immigrant children experienced less parental involvement than did native children. The hierarchical linear model revealed that four of the five parental involvement factors related to initial achievement, the only exception being intergenerational closure. The immigrant-native gap in initial achievement can be partially explained by parental involvement, while discrepancies in the growth rates of academic achievement were not observed between the two groups. Furthermore, a negative and long-lasting effect of parental expectation on achievement was found in Confucian culture, which is characterized by an emphasis on the importance of education and the higher academic standards set by Chinese parents.

Ecological Networks and Neighborhood Social Organization.

Drawing on the social disorganization tradition and the social ecological perspective of Jane Jacobs, the authors hypothesize that neighborhoods composed of residents who intersect in space more frequently as a result of routine activities will exhibit higher levels of collective efficacy, intergenerational closure, and social network interaction and exchange. They develop this approach employing the concept of ecological networks-two-mode networks that indirectly link residents through spatial overlap in routine activities. Using data from the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey, they find evidence that econetwork extensity (the average proportion of households in the neighborhood to which a given household is tied through any location) and intensity (the degree to which household dyads are characterized by ties through multiple locations) are positively related to changes in social organization between 2000-2001 and 2006-2008. These findings demonstrate the relevance of econetwork characteristics-heretofore neglected in research on urban neighborhoods-for consequential dimensions of neighborhood social organization.

Closure in the elite professions: the field of law and medicine in an egalitarian context

This article examines if and how the elite professions of law and medicine have managed to maintain their exclusivity in a period of educational expansion in Norway. The extent to which these professions disproportionately recruit students with socio-economically advantageous backgrounds is seen as an indication of intergenerational closure. Using registry data covering the entire population of Norway over a 26-year time span, we show that even though these two professions have experienced growing numbers of candidates, they manage, partly due to different institutional strategies, to maintain their exclusivity. Parents’ income and self-recruitment are relatively stable and important factors for the recruitment in both fields, although these trends are somewhat higher in law than in medicine. Drawing on Turner’s (1960) ideal-typical concepts of contest and sponsor mobility, we pinpoint institutional differences between the types of education provided for both groups and how these have adapted to meet the expansion in candidates seeking to qualify as lawyers and doctors.

FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH CIVIC ENGAGEMENT IN ADOLESCENCE: THE EFFECTS OF NEIGHBORHOOD, SCHOOL, FAMILY, AND PEER CONTEXTS

Research on youth civic engagement has emphasized the importance of growing up in a civic context. We examined the relative influence of neighborhood characteristics (neighborhood opportunities and intergenerational closure), civic education at school, friends’ civic engagement, and parents’ civic engagement on civic attitudes and civic behaviors among youths. Participants were 403 11‐ to 15‐year‐old adolescents randomly selected from the city register of a midsized city in Italy. The hierarchical regression analysis found that all analyzed contexts were related to adolescent civic engagement. In particular, intergenerational closure, friends’ civic engagement, and parents’ civic engagement were associated with both civic attitudes and civic behaviors. Findings highlighted the importance of considering multiple contexts to understand what factors are associated with youth civic engagement. We discuss ways that findings can be transmitted into further research and practice to address the multiple contexts in which youths are embedded and their relative influence on adolescent civic engagement.

Association Between Neighborhood Social Environment and Children's Independent Mobility.

Independent travel among youth has diminished and rates of obesity have increased. It remains empirically unclear what factors influence the degree to which parents allow, or even enable, their children to be independently mobile. We analyze the association between parental perceptions of the social environment and the degree of independent mobility among children. Surveys were conducted with 305 parents of 10- to 14-year-olds in the Bay Area during 2006 and 2007. The social environment was measured with scales assessing parental perceptions of child-centered social control, intergenerational closure, social cohesion, and safety from crime and traffic. Independent mobility was measured as a composite variable reflecting the degree to which a child is allowed to do the following without adult accompaniment: travel to neighborhood destinations, walk around the neighborhood, cross main roads, and ride transit. We find modest evidence of an association between parental perceptions of social cohesion and safety from traffic and independent mobility outcomes among children. Age is positively associated with increased independent mobility and Hispanic children experience greater restrictions on independent mobility. Interventions aimed at increasing physical activity among children through greater independent mobility should include neighborhood-level efforts to grow social cohesion and trust.

Neighborhood-level social processes and substantiated cases of child maltreatment

Child maltreatment is a preventable public health problem. Research has demonstrated that neighborhood structural factors (e.g. poverty, crime) can influence the proportion of a neighborhood's children who are victims of maltreatment. A newer strategy is the identification of potentially modifiable social processes at the neighborhood level that can also influence maltreatment. Toward this end, this study examines neighborhood-level data (maltreatment cases substantiated by Illinois’ child protection agency, 1995–2005, social processes measured by the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, U.S. Census data, proportions of neighborhoods on public assistance, and crime data) that were linked across clusters of contiguous, relatively homogenous Chicago, IL census tracts with respect to racial/ethnic and socioeconomic composition. Our analysis—an ecological-level, repeated cross-sectional design utilizing random-intercept logit models—with a sensitivity analysis using spatial models to control for spatial autocorrelation—revealed consistent associations between neighborhood social processes and maltreatment. Neighborhoods higher in collective efficacy, intergenerational closure, and social networks, and lower in disorder had lower proportions of neglect, physical abuse, and sexual abuse substantiated cases, controlling for differences in structural factors. Higher collective efficacy and social network size also predicted a lower proportion of substance-exposed infants. This research indicates that strategies to mobilize neighborhood-level protective factors may decrease child maltreatment more effectively than individual and family-focused efforts alone.

The role of community, family, peer, and school factors in group bullying: implications for school-based intervention.

Although an ecological perspective suggests the importance of multiple levels of intervention, most bullying research has emphasized individual- and school-focused strategies. This study investigated community and family factors that influence school efforts to reduce odds of group bullying behavior and victimization. We used multilevel logistic regression to analyze data from the 2009 Youth in Iceland population school survey (N = 7084, response rate: 83.5%, 50.8% girls). Parental support and time spent with parents were protective against group bullying behavior while worsening relationships with teachers and disliking school increased the likelihood of such behavior. Knowing kids in the area increased the likelihood of group bullying while intergenerational closure was a protective factor. Normlessness was consistently positively related to group bullying. We found no indication of higher-level relationships across the bullying models. Parental support was protective against victimization. Disliking school, intergenerational closure, and anomie/normlessness were strongly and negatively related to victimization. We found some indication of multilevel relationships for victimization. Findings support efforts to increase family and community connection, closure, and support as a part of school-based intervention. These factors become more important as young people participate in or experience greater odds of group bullying behavior and victimization.

Neighborhoods and adolescent health-risk behavior: An ecological network approach

This study integrates insights from social network analysis, activity space perspectives, and theories of urban and spatial processes to present an novel approach to neighborhood effects on health-risk behavior among youth. We suggest spatial patterns of neighborhood residents' non-home routines may be conceptualized as ecological, or “eco”-networks, which are two-mode networks that indirectly link residents through socio-spatial overlap in routine activities. We further argue structural configurations of eco-networks are consequential for youth's behavioral health. In this study we focus on a key structural feature of eco-networks – the neighborhood-level extent to which household dyads share two or more activity locations, or eco-network reinforcement – and its association with two dimensions of health-risk behavior, substance use and delinquency/sexual activity. Using geographic data on non-home routine activity locations among respondents from the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey (L.A.FANS), we constructed neighborhood-specific eco-networks by connecting sampled households to “activity clusters,” which are sets of spatially-proximate activity locations. We then measured eco-network reinforcement and examined its association with dimensions of adolescent health risk behavior employing a sample of 830 youth ages 12–17 nested in 65 census tracts. We also examined whether neighborhood-level social processes (collective efficacy and intergenerational closure) mediate the association between eco-network reinforcement and the outcomes considered. Results indicated eco-network reinforcement exhibits robust negative associations with both substance use and delinquency/sexual activity scales. Eco-network reinforcement effects were not explained by potential mediating variables. In addition to introducing a novel theoretical and empirical approach to neighborhood effects on youth, our findings highlight the importance of intersecting conventional routines for adolescent behavioral health.

Function and Functional Explanation in Social Capital Theory: A Philosophical Appraisal

Social capital is frequently offered up as a variable to explain such educational outcomes as academic attainment, drop-out rates and cognitive development. Yet, despite its popularity amongst social scientists, social capital theory remains the object of some scepticism, particularly in respect of its explanatory ambitions. I provide an account of some explanatory options available to social capital theorists, focussing on the functions ascribed to social capital and on how these are used as explanatory variables in educational theory. Two of the most influential writers in this field are Coleman and Bourdieu. I explore their commonalities and differences, both in respect of their writing and in respect of some of the many theorists they have influenced. I argue that social capital theorists have made substantial progress in responding to sceptically minded critics, but that significant questions remain, especially about the success of the more ambitious explanatory variants as these apply to educational outcomes—functional explanation in particular. Functional explanation, and its association with Bourdieu, is discussed in ‘Bourdieu and functional explanation’; thereafter I discuss the more modest ambition of identifying the functions associated with social capital. In ‘Coleman, intergenerational closure and educational outcomes’ I show how Coleman provides resources for revealing how social structure features in social explanation in an educational context, and in ‘Inequality, class and ethnicity’ I suggest that some of the questions raised in his account are most satisfactorily responded to by educational theorists who adopt Bourdieu’s emphasis on social class and inequality.