Intergenerational Closure

Intergenerational closure is a type of social structure believed to benefit children. Most commonly, it refers to a social network in which a child's parent knows the parents of the child's friends. James S. Coleman argued that this enhances child outcomes by facilitating information exchange, social support, and social [Page 388]control. Others question whether it is inherently good and debate how it impacts children. There is some empirical evidence that links intergenerational closure to academic success, but questions remain about how to best measure and test its effects. Intergenerational closure describes a kind of social network containing people of different generations. In this network, some people have both intergenerational ties (e.g., between a parent and a child) and intra-generational ties (e.g., between a parent and ...