The influence of social capital on school performances: a comparison between Italy and Romania
Elena Cocoradă, Alina Elena Măldărașanu
The pupils‘ social capital makes the difference between their ways of adapting and their school performance; it explains the inclusion process of various groups within the educational system, including the immigrants. This conducted study aims at identifying the variables which define the pupils with certain educational results. Various childrens‘ groups are being brought under discussion: children who reside Romania, but whose parents have
emigrated to Italy, children who have immigrated to Italy together with their parents and children who reside Romania together with their parents. The analysis has included the scoring and nominal variables: social capital, gender, age, educational level and occupation of the mother/ father, the children‘s proximity to their parents etc. The multinomial logistic regression shows that the best available predictor of school performance is social capital, followed by the educational background of the mother, gender and proximity to the parents. The predictors are more adequate for the ‗good‘ and ‗excellent‘ school results.
social capital, school results, immigrants.
Elena Cocoradă – Transilvania University of Braşov, Romania, E-mail: elena.cocorada@unitbv.ro
Alina Elena Măldărașanu – University of Catania, Italy