Differential parental social capital investment in children’s education: Research evidence

Abstract

When parents bring forth children, they perceive and act on their upbringing. However, some children live with and are brought up by non-biological parents. The phenomenon of children living with non-biological parents has been a long standing practice in most societies, yet little comparative research interest had been shown to examine the involvement of real and pseudo parents in children’s education. The study sought to fill the lacuna by examining differential family social capital investment in children’s education. Cross-sectional survey was utilised to study children from three geographical settings and data was gathered from administration of survey instrument. Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SPSS), version 20, was used to analyse the data. Several findings emerged from the study. Firstly, the study unveiled moderate manifestation of social capital in the families of the study subjects. Secondly, there was a relatively high rate of pseudo parenting, which means that a good percent of the children were not living with their real parents. Thirdly, the results revealed that pseudo parents did not commit much time and energy into their wards’ education as much as the real or biological parents did for their children. Fourthly, parents residing in urban centres tended to socially invest more in their children’s education as opposed to their counterparts in the other communities. Consequently, parents, irrespective of their status and community of residence, are urged to demonstrate much interest and participate in their children’s education.

Keywords: Social capital, real and pseudo parents, rural, peri-urban and urban communities, parental involvement in education.