Multidimensional Influences of Family Environment in Education: The Case of Socialist Czechoslovakia

By expanding Coleman's theory of the intergenerational conversion process, social network theory, and Bourdieu's cultural capital theory, the author identified four components of family capital that are important for the educational attainment of children: human capital, financial capital, social capital, and cultural capital. Furthermore, unlike the conventional approach that focuses on parent-child relationships in families, the author defined social capital to include social relationships and networks outside the family that parents can use. The relative importance of each component of family capital for a child's education is illustrated by a case study of socialist Czechoslovakia in which social capital was ope rationalized by membership in the Communist Party. The study found that in addition to each component's independent influences on children's educational attainment, there may also be an interaction effect between the parents' social and human capital in the conversion process.