Family influences on the social participation of youth: The effects of parental social involvement and farming

Parents shape: children's social choices through their social and economic actions. Parental social participation connects children to a civic culture and encourages involvement in civic groups. Parents' ties to farming in fa rm-dependent communities further enhance children's civic orientations by p roviding added opportunities and incentives for social participation. Data from the Iowa Youth and Families Project confirm these hypotheses, showing that the children of farmers and of rural leaders are more likely to partic ipate in civic groups. These results establish parental social involvement as a source of social capital and demonstrate the importance of farm influe nces for understanding the social involvement of youth in rural society.