IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jscscx/v10y2021i3p83-d508398.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Social Capital and Post-Secondary Decision-Making Alignment for Low-Income Students

Author

Listed:
  • Rod Missaghian

    (Department of Sociology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada)

Abstract

How is post-secondary decision-making influenced by the types of social capital students access? This study draws from interviews with 30 students in a low-income neighbourhood to examine who they turn to for post-secondary advice during the application process. Interactions with different ties and their influence on decision-making alignment, misalignment or uncertainty are explored. I find that students who report relying more on bonding (family and friends) social capital over (bridging) ties with school personnel demonstrate more misalignment in decision-making. In contrast, those who rely more on ties with school personnel exhibit more decision-making alignment. Many students whose proposed choices demonstrated alignment also lacked overall ‘fit’ and had unrealistic aspirations, except for a select few who reported close and consistent relationships with institutional agents. These findings contribute to the social capital literature examining the potential of institutional agents to help low-income students circumvent social stratification processes.

Suggested Citation

  • Rod Missaghian, 2021. "Social Capital and Post-Secondary Decision-Making Alignment for Low-Income Students," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-18, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:10:y:2021:i:3:p:83-:d:508398
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/10/3/83/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/10/3/83/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sarah Schmitt-Wilson & Caitlin Faas, 2016. "Alignment of Educational and Occupational Expectations Influences on Young Adult Educational Attainment, Income, and Underemployment," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 97(5), pages 1174-1188, November.
    2. Philippe Belley & Marc Frenette & Lance Lochner, 2014. "Post-secondary attendance by parental income in the U.S. and Canada: Do financial aid policies explain the differences?," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 47(2), pages 664-696, May.
    3. Siddiqi, Arjumand & Zuberi, Daniyal & Nguyen, Quynh C., 2009. "The role of health insurance in explaining immigrant versus non-immigrant disparities in access to health care: Comparing the United States to Canada," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(10), pages 1452-1459, November.
    4. Rebecca D. Cox, 2016. "Complicating Conditions: Obstacles and Interruptions to Low-Income Students' College “Choices”," The Journal of Higher Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 87(1), pages 1-26, January.
    5. Scott Davies & Floyd M. Hammack, 2005. "The Channeling of Student Competition in Higher Education: Comparing Canada and the U.S," The Journal of Higher Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 76(1), pages 89-106, January.
    6. Soobin Kim & Christopher Klager & Barbara Schneider, 2019. "The Effects of Alignment of Educational Expectations and Occupational Aspirations on Labor Market Outcomes: Evidence from NLSY79," The Journal of Higher Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 90(6), pages 992-1015, November.
    7. Stephen E. Childs & Ross Finnie & Felice Martinello, 2017. "Postsecondary Student Persistence and Pathways: Evidence From the YITS-A in Canada," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 58(3), pages 270-294, May.
    8. April Yee, 2016. "The Unwritten Rules of Engagement: Social Class Differences in Undergraduates' Academic Strategies," The Journal of Higher Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 87(6), pages 831-858, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jane Greve & Morten Saaby & Anders Rosdahl & Vibeke Tornhøj Christensen, 2021. "Uncertain occupational expectations at age 19 and later educational and labour market outcomes," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 35(2), pages 163-191, June.
    2. Garey Ramey & Valerie A. Ramey, 2010. "The Rug Rat Race," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 41(1 (Spring), pages 129-199.
    3. Michael J. Kottelenberg & Steven F. Lehrer, 2019. "How Skills and Parental Valuation of Education Influence Human Capital Acquisition and Early Labor Market Return to Human Capital in Canada," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 37(S2), pages 735-778.
    4. Beattie, Graham & Laliberté, Jean-William P. & Oreopoulos, Philip, 2018. "Thrivers and divers: Using non-academic measures to predict college success and failure," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 170-182.
    5. Christian Belzil & Arnaud Maurel & Modibo Sidibé, 2021. "Estimating the Value of Higher Education Financial Aid: Evidence from a Field Experiment," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 39(2), pages 361-395.
    6. Jimenez, Anthony M., 2021. "The legal violence of care: Navigating the US health care system while undocumented and illegible," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 270(C).
    7. Prus, Steven G., 2011. "Comparing social determinants of self-rated health across the United States and Canada," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(1), pages 50-59, July.
    8. Kang, Yankun & Liang, Shuyuan & Bai, Caiquan & Feng, Chen, 2020. "Labor contracts and parents’ educational expectations for children: Income effect or expected effect?," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    9. Bill McCarthy & Mikael Jansson & Cecilia Benoit, 2021. "Job Attributes and Mental Health: A Comparative Study of Sex Work and Hairstyling," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-21, January.
    10. Watson, Barry & Kong, Nancy & Phipps, Shelley, 2022. "Dreaming of a Brighter Future? The Impact of Economic Vulnerability on University Aspirations," IZA Discussion Papers 15539, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. G. Trohel & V. Bertaud-Gounot & M. Soler & P. Chauvin & Olivier Grimaud, 2016. "Socio-Economic determinants of the need for dental care in adults," Post-Print hal-01372359, HAL.
    12. Anita Minh & Ute Bültmann & Sijmen A. Reijneveld & Sander K. R. van Zon & Christopher B. McLeod, 2021. "Depressive Symptom Trajectories and Early Adult Education and Employment: Comparing Longitudinal Cohorts in Canada and the United States," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(8), pages 1-12, April.
    13. Jo Blanden & Matthias Doepke & Jan Stuhler, 2022. "Education inequality," CEP Discussion Papers dp1849, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    14. Patrick Bennett & Kelly Foley & David A. Green & Kjell G. Salvanes, 2024. "Education and inequality: an international perspective," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 45(3), pages 429-454, September.
    15. Gilda Trohel & Valérie Bertaud-Gounot & Marion Soler & Pierre Chauvin & Olivier Grimaud, 2016. "Socio-Economic Determinants of the Need for Dental Care in Adults," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(7), pages 1-11, July.
    16. Youngmin Park, 2018. "Inequality in Parental Transfers, Borrowing Constraints, and Optimal Higher Education Subsidies," 2018 Meeting Papers 623, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    17. Ramraj, Chantel & Shahidi, Faraz Vahid & Darity, William & Kawachi, Ichiro & Zuberi, Daniyal & Siddiqi, Arjumand, 2016. "Equally inequitable? A cross-national comparative study of racial health inequalities in the United States and Canada," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 161(C), pages 19-26.
    18. Kim, Edward & Goodman, Joshua & West, Martin R., 2024. "Kumon In: The Recent, Rapid Rise of Private Tutoring Centers," IZA Discussion Papers 17178, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Mario Cervantes, 2017. "Higher Education Institutions in the Knowledge Triangle," Foresight and STI Governance (Foresight-Russia till No. 3/2015), National Research University Higher School of Economics, vol. 11(2), pages 27-42.
    20. Abdel Latif Sellami, 2019. "Parental Influence on Student Educational Expectations: Results from the 2012 Qatar Education Study," International Journal of Higher Education, Sciedu Press, vol. 8(4), pages 189-189, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:10:y:2021:i:3:p:83-:d:508398. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.