On this foundation of familiarity it is possible to nurture a greater, more mature commitment, concern, care, and support for each other. The results were compelling. The boy who had to be taught via a computer at home for fear of casual contact in Kokomo was not shunned but embraced on his first day of school in Cicero. However, this kind of interpersonal involvement does not happen naturally. Social theory provides some insight.
Human capital is the combined skills, knowledge, and talents of a particular group of people.
Social capital includes those factors that can be identified in both families and communities which facilitate the creation and development of human capital. Smith et al. They found several family and community social capital factors that significantly influenced dropout rates. Using these significant factors, they were able to construct a model that explains variations in dropout rates among the southern communities in the study. The following table was borrowed from the study to illustrate the relationships among these variables.