Family-Based Social Capital Considerations as Predictors of Attainments Among Appalachian Youth.

The article explores social and human capital theory in application to status attainment research using a sample of low-income youth from rural Appalachian families. Important comparisons involve the relative influences of human capital and family of origin social capital variables on the educational and occupational attainment of youth from low-income, rural backgrounds. Data for this study were acquired from a subsample of White youths that was part of the Southern Regional Research Projects, a ten-year longitudinal investigation of the status attainment and family circumstances of low-income rural youth. Surveys of a purposive sample of youths were conducted during the fifth and sixth grades, eleventh and twelfth grades, and during young adulthood when the subjects were approximately twenty-one to twenty-two years of age. Path analysis was used to test the model because of its application to issues involving linear relationships, the presumed causal ordering of variables, and the need to determine the direct and indirect effects of predictor variables upon criterion variables. The results confirmed some of the social interaction hypotheses but demonstrated even greater support for individual human and family social capital variables in explaining young adult attainment outcomes. Support was provided for the inclusion of family-based social capital variables as a means of gaining a broader understanding of youth attainment.