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ABSTRACT
There is a growing recognition of the importance of the social resources accessed through friends on adolescents’ educational outcomes. However, the research on the influence of these social resources remains inconclusive, due primarily to the different ways in which social resources have been conceptualized and measured. Using panel data from the Educational Longitudinal Study, we estimate the association between two measures of adolescents’ social resources in the Educational Longitudinal Study base-year, their high school grade point average in the first follow-up, and the likelihood of attaining a four-year college degree by the third follow-up. Grounded in the literature on social capital, our findings show that friendships that provide access to high social closure parental networks are favorably associated with grade point average and college completion. We discuss results in terms of their implications on school reform efforts intended to manufacture adolescents’ access to norm-reinforcing networks.
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Notes on contributors
Brian V. Carolan
Brian V. Carolan is Professor of Quantitative Research Methods and Associate Dean, the Graduate School, Montclair State University. His research interests include the sociology of education and social networks. His recent publications have appeared in The British Journal of Sociology of Education and Sociological Perspectives. He is currently examining the association between parenting styles and children’s achievement growth.
David T. Lardier
David T. Lardier, Jr., is Assistant Professor in the Department of Individual, Family, and Community Education at the University of New Mexico. His current research focuses on preventing adolescent substance abuse and on promoting youth empowerment and educational equality among urban youth of color. His recent publications have appeared in the Journal of Ethnicity in Substance Abuse and the Journal of Social Distress and the Homeless.