Archive Detail

Speaker:
Anna Manzoni

This event is part of an event series „In_equality Colloquium“.

Parental resources may provide myriad benefits to children. Young people with highly educated and highly prestigious parents are likely to replicate similar levels of status in their lives. In prior research, this fact has appeared in the context of human and cultural capital studies; however, we argue that family social capital also plays a role in this kind of intergenerational transfer of advantage, particularly in the workplace. Little is documented about how familial social capital influences early occupational outcomes. Family social capital usually is associated with a multitude of educational and behavioral benefits, focusing on early childhood effects such as avoiding youth delinquency. The current study explores the efficacy of family social capital later in the life-course: on early career outcomes. Specifically, we answer whether family social capital helps young people navigate labor markets towards more prestigious and highly paying jobs. To do so, this study draws on data from the Transition to Adulthood Supplement (TAS) to the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). The authors discuss the theoretical implications of the findings.

The paper is co-authored by Anna Manzoni, Thomas R. Leppard* & Adam James Goldfarb*

*Graduate student, North Carolina State University

Anna Manzoni is Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the North Carolina State University. Her research interests include life course, labor market, social inequality, demography, immigration, and sociology of the family. Her articles have appeared in European Sociological Review, Sociological Perspectives, and Social Currents, among others.

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