Reported family and consumer sciences experiences and perceived social capital of college students: A quantitative-exploratory cross-cultural study

Social capital (non-material social resources) correlates with improvement in academic achievement and college-going propensity of minority youth. Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS) provides an integrated context within multidisciplinary academic settings. As one part of Career and Technical Education (CTE) offerings in public schools, FCS incorporates technical skill with critical thinking through learner-centered, problem-based pedagogy. By applying Lin’s Social Capital Theory, this study sought to determine if FCS made any contribution to the development of four factors of social capital during high school. These four factors were networks, institutional agents, encouragement, and action. A second question posed by the study was whether FCS experiences had any differentiated outcomes based on ethnicity. The cross-cultural component for this study focused on a comparison between Hispanic participants of Mexican origin and non-Hispanic White (Caucasian) participants. An exploratory-quantitative design was used to answer the research questions, through a retrospective online survey for data collection. The sample consisted of FCS majors at four universities in Texas. Information was gathered related to participants’ experiences during high school with FCS, network connections, institutional agents, encouragement, and action, as well as demographic information needed to perform cross-cultural analyses. During the fall of 2013, 101 participants completed the survey. A variety of analyses were employed to explore the data including frequencies, cross-tabulations, regression, independent-measures t-tests, and two-factor ANOVA. The results indicated that participation in FCS during high school could predict the variation in social capital scores (p = .023). A positive trend was detected when comparing the scores for social capital factors with high and low/no FCS experiences; Institutional agents was the exception (p = .05) to non-significance in the findings. This trend persisted in the cross-cultural comparison. Given the exploratory nature of this study, the trends as well as the significant results have implications for future research which is needed to further clarify these relationships. Additionally, there are several strategies that FCS teachers can employ to be proactive in helping all students accumulate social capital which will position them for post-secondary success.