Family Capital Structure and Educational Attainment: Evidence from China Family Panel Surveys
Year: 2025
Type: book-chapter
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Educational inequality, as a core issue in social stratification research, profoundly reflects the shaping effect of social structure on individual developmental opportunities.Based on Pierre Bourdieu's capital theory framework, this study deconstructs family capital into three dimensions: economic capital, cultural capital, and social capital.Specifically, economic capital directly enhances children's educational opportunities through the purchase of educational resources; cultural capital shapes children's knowledge acquisition ability and higher education expectations via intergenerational cognitive transmission, while social capital reduces information asymmetry and structural barriers in the process of educational attainment by leveraging the information flow and institutional support within family social networks.Bourdieu emphasizes the Convertibility and "Synergistic Effects of capitaleconomic capital can be converted into cultural capital, and social capital can optimize the efficiency of capital allocation.Together, these three forms constitute the dynamic system driving intergenerational transmission within families.Utilizing longitudinal data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS, 2010(CFPS, -2022)), this study aims to verify the direct effects of family capital structure on higher education attainment.It seeks to provide a theoretical basis for dismantling the Matthew Effect in the intergenerational transmission of family capital and for formulating rural education support policies that integrate both resource investment and the cultivation of cultural capabilities.
Author: Yilang Li
Institution: University of International Relations
Language: English
Topic: Social and Cultural Dynamics
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4416281629