PEDIATRICS Vol. 101 No. 1 January 1998, pp. 12-18
Children Who Prosper in Unfavorable Environments: The Relationship to Social Capital
Received Nov 11, 1996; accepted May 22, 1997.
,,
,, and
From the Departments of * Social Medicine and Pediatrics at
the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine,
Chapel Hill, North Carolina; the § Department of Psychiatry and
Behavioral Sciences at the Duke University Medical Center, Durham,
North Carolina; the ** Departments of Maternal and Child Health and
Biostatistics at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
School of Public Health, Chapel Hill, North Carolina; the Washington
State Department of Social and Health Services, Seattle, Washington;
the ¶ School of Social Work at San Diego State University, San Diego,
California; and the # Department of Pediatrics at the University of
Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland.
Objective. Social capital describes the benefits that are derived from personal social relationships (within families and communities) and social affiliations. This investigation examined the extent to which social capital is associated with positive developmental and behavioral outcomes in high-risk preschool children.
Design. A cross-sectional case-control analysis of young children "doing well" and "not doing well" at baseline in four coordinated longitudinal studies.
Participants. A total of 667 2- to 5-year-old children (mean age, 4.4 years) and their maternal caregivers who are participating in the Longitudinal Studies of Child Abuse and Neglect Consortium. At recruitment, all children were characterized by unfavorable social or economic circumstances that contributed to the identification of the children as high risk.
Measures. Social capital was defined as benefits that accrue from social relationships within communities and families. A social capital index was created by assigning one point to each of the following indicators: 1) two parents or parent-figures in the home; 2) social support of the maternal caregiver; 3) no more than two children in the family; 4) neighborhood support; and 5) regular church attendance. Outcomes were measured with the Child Behavior Checklist, a widely used measure of behavioral/emotional problems, and with the Battelle Developmental Inventory Screening Test, a standardized test that identifies developmental deficits. Children were classified as doing well if their scores on these instruments indicated neither behavioral nor developmental problems.
Results. Only 13% of the children were classified as
doing well. The individual indicators that best discriminated between levels of child functioning were the most direct measures of social capital
church affiliation, perception of personal social support, and
support within the neighborhood. The social capital index was strongly
associated with child well-being, more so than any single indicator.
The presence of any social capital indicator increased the odds of
doing well by 29%; adding any two increased the odds of doing well by
66%.
Conclusions. Our findings suggest that social capital may have an impact on children's well-being as early as the preschool years. In these years it seems to be the parents' social capital that confers benefits on their offspring, just as children benefit from their parents' financial and human capital. Social capital may be most crucial for families who have fewer financial and educational resources. Our findings suggest that those interested in the healthy development of children, particularly children most at risk for poor developmental outcomes, must search for new and creative ways of supporting interpersonal relationships and strengthening the communities in which families carry out the daily activities of their lives.
Key words: social capital, social networks, child well-being, development, resilience, child maltreatment.
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