The role of social capital in promoting work readiness among opportunity youth

Ashley A. Boat, Amy K. Syvertsen and Peter C. Scales

Children and Youth Services Review, 2021, vol. 131, issue C

Abstract: Social capital is one of the most valuable entry points into the workforce. Yet, large portions of America’s opportunity youth lack the relationships, connections, and resources required to prepare them for work. Programs that foster social capital are one promising avenue for enhancing the work readiness of these youth. The current study examined whether social capital built through developmental relationships and valuable program resources (i.e., goal support and learning opportunities) would result in greater levels of work readiness among 291 youth (age 14–24, 48% female, 83% youth of color), who participated in community wraparound support programs using the common program enhancement model known as Opportunity Reboot. Findings showed that learning opportunities mediated the association between youths’ developmental relationships and growth in work readiness. The study contributes to the literature by providing support for a pathway through which social capital can be built and ultimately strengthen opportunity youths’ work readiness.

Keywords: Social capital; Developmental relationships; Work readiness; Opportunity youth (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190740921003467
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:131:y:2021:i:c:s0190740921003467

DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2021.106270

Access Statistics for this article

Children and Youth Services Review is currently edited by Duncan Lindsey

More articles in Children and Youth Services Review from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().