Children's Sense of Belonging and Parental Social Capital Derived from School

ABSTRACT

Parents’ chance to seek help from other parents of schoolchildren attending the same school is an aspect of parental social capital. This social capital is supposed to contribute to schoolchildren's present sense of belonging to their school, society, and country. The relationship between social capital and a child's sense of belonging may vary as a function of the child's prior sense of belonging. Social capital may give a deeper encouragement or positive effect to children with higher prior sense of belonging (the strength building perspective) or to children with lower prior sense of belonging (the need fulfillment perspective). The author surveyed 289 parents and their schoolchildren in Grades 4–9 in Hong Kong, China, to ascertain which of the two perspectives holds. The results indicated that parental social capital was more highly associated with a child's present belongingness if his or her prior belongingness was high rather than low. This interaction effect is supportive of the strength building perspective.

Keywords:

• sense of belonging
• social capital
• strength building

AUTHOR NOTES

Chau-kiu Cheung is an associate professor at the City University of Hong Kong, China. He has published articles concerning character education, moral development, peer influence, and class mobility. His current research addresses issues of patriotism, drug abuse, social harmony, and intercity cooperation.