Social Capital and School Sector Impacts on the Non-Cognitive Skills of Early Adolescents: Evidence from a Nationally Representative Longitudinal Survey

Estimates obtained from the first nationally representative longitudinal study of students in the United States in grades K-8, robust to both probit and propensity score matching models, provide empirical support for James Coleman’s social capital theory of Catholic school impacts on student behavior. Catholic schooling has a positive impact on the academic engagement, homework completion, tardiness, absenteeism, class attentiveness, and disruptive behavior of 8th graders. It has a negative impact on student assessments of their self-esteem. Little discernable impact on other psychological traits is observed. Data come from the U.S. Department of Education’s Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (K-8) initiated in 1998. All impacts are observed after controlling for numerous background characteristics and for 1st grade math and reading scores.