Social Capital: the link between family and community

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Social Capital the link between family and
community

• Jody Hughes Wendy Stone
• Presentation to 8th Australian Institute of
  Family Studies Conference
• Melbourne, Australia 12-14 Feb 2003

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Aim structure of paper

• Defining social capital
• The family-community link assumptions
  underlying policy and research
• (1) Role of family in building community social
  capital
• (2) Implications of family change for community
  social capital
• Aim to test the family decline thesis using
  data from the Famillies, Social Capital and
  Citizenship project
• Method
• Summary of findings
• Conclusions and implications

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Defining social capital

• Social capital can be understood as networks of
  social relations characterised by norms of trust
  and reciprocity (Bourdieu 1993 Coleman 1988
  Putnam 1993)
• Social capital can therefore exist in both family
  and community life

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Assumptions about the role of family in building
community

• Idealised as the most productive site of social
  capital and therefore a pillar of civic virtue
  and democracy (Putzel 1997)
• Assumed to provide models of good relationships
  and civic virtues (Cox 1995)
• Seen as the primordial source and location of
  trust (Misztal 1996).
• Seen as an intermediate institution through which
  individuals are tied to society

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Yet family life is undergoing change

• Declining marriage fertility rates
• High rates of separation divorce
• Increased numbers of lone parent lone person
  households
• Increased workforce participation of women with
  children
• Increased number of dual income no income
  families
• Norms governing family life shifted from being
  primarily obligational to negotiated (Smart and
  Neale 1999)

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Implications of family change for community

• The family decline thesis these changes in
  family life will lead to declining levels of
  community social capital (Fukuyama 1999 Putnam
  1995).
• WHY
• Family change ? declining family social capital
  (weaker family bonds and norms of trust and
  reciprocity) ? declining community social capital
• Family change ? impact on other resources (eg.
  human and financial capital) ? declining
  community social capital

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Aim to test the family decline thesis

• How
• Examine how community social capital relates to
  key family characteristics associated with family
  change (eg. family structure, marital status,
  household employment, attitudes to relationships
  and gender roles), and
• Examine whether these relationships are moderated
  by
• (a) the level of social capital within
  families (eg. family bonds and norms of trust and
  reciprocity) and
• (b) other family resources (eg. human and
  financial capital).

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Measures of community social capital

• Level of generalised trust and reciprocity (0 to
  10 scale)
• Number of group and organisational memberships

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• Series of hierarchical regression analyses
• Step 1 enter key characteristics associated with
  family change (family structure marital status
  household employment and attitudes to
  relationships and gender roles)
• Step 2 enter measures of family social capital
  as additional predictor variables (level of
  household social capital size of kin networks
  level of trust reciprocity in kin networks and
  level of voluntary work, political /or community
  activity in family of origin)
• Step 3 enter measures of other resources as
  additional predictor variables (education self
  reported financial wellbeing home ownership
  health socio-economic disadvantage of
  neighbourhood and perceptions of neighbourhood
  safety)
• - control for respondent age, ethnicity and
  locality type

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The Families, Social Capital and Citizenship
survey

• Undertaken by AIFS in 2000/2001
• National random sample of people 18 years or over
  (stratified by state and territory)
• Total of 1506 respondents
• Interviews conducted via telephone (CATI)
• 3 samples used in analysis
• (1) all men
• (2) all women
• (3) women with dependent children

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Findings 1

• Marriage and family structure are significant for
  men but not women married men report the highest
  levels of community social capital and
  divorced/separated men the lowest
• However, apparent trade off between household and
  community social capital for lone mothers
• Working full time is associated with low levels
  of generalised trust and reciprocity for women
  with children
• Non-traditional attitudes to relationships and
  gender roles are associated with high levels of
  community social capital

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Findings 2

• The reason marriage and non-traditional attitudes
  to relationships are associated with high
  community social capital for men is in part
  because these characteristics are associated with
  high family social capital for men
• However, high family social capital does not
  always translate into high community social
  capital
• - high civic activity in family of origin
  associated with high group membership
• - high kin based trust and reciprocity associated
  with high generalised trust and reciprocity, but
  low group membership (for men)
• - trade off between household and community
  social capital for lone mothers
• The quality of family relations (family social
  capital) does not explain the link between full
  time employment and low generalised trust and
  reciprocity among women with children

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Findings 3

• Other resources are also important predictors of
  community social capital, particularly group
  membership
• The reason marriage (for men) and non-traditional
  attitudes to relationships and gender roles (for
  men and women) are associated with high community
  social capital is in part because these
  characteristics are associated with high levels
  of human financial capital

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Conclusions and implications

• Mixed support for family decline thesis
• Cant assume that family change necessarily has
  negative impacts for community life
• A focus upon maintaining family relationships
  alone will not always result in increased
  outcomes for the community