I explore the relationship between family changes and social capital in American society. Since the mid-20th century, new types of and additions to the family structure have emerged, including cohabitation family, single-parent family, employed women, and NEETs (Not in Education, Employment, and Training). Although new types of families symbolize a more flexible definition of family, some problems have emerged which are worthy of studying. In fact, these families have recently become a primary focus of study in academia, but their social lives are rarely mentioned. I argue in my dissertation that these new types of arrangements not only changed how we define family, but also brought about changes in how we are involved in society. Members of these new types of families have difficulty accumulating social capital due to some unique conditions which stem from these family types. The unstable relationship between cohabitating couples, the scarcity of family resources in single-parent families, the heavy burdens for employed wives, and the indifferent attitudes among non-employed young people may explain why they have less social capital. The results indicated a complicated relationship between family changes and social capital. In general, family changes negatively affected social capital acquisition to some degree. However, different family changes may make different impacts on social capital. It is my hope that my research will encourage social scientists to seriously (re)examine the social life of people involved in these new types of families.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-04072016-091044 |
| Date | 04 May 2016 |
| Creators | Lin, Ya-Feng |
| Contributors | Kamo, Yoshinori, Schafer, Mark J., Blanchard, Troy C., Chaney, Cassandra |
| Publisher | LSU |
| Source Sets | Louisiana State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-04072016-091044/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached herein a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below and in appropriate University policies, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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