Table 3 Findings from studies on family social capital or family cultural capital on educational outcomes in a Chinese context

Family social capital

Educational status

Academic performance

Using tracking data of primary school students in the rural areas of five western provinces of China, family social capital was positively correlated with the educational statuses and academic outcomes of rural children, net of the social and economic factors of rural families

Liang and Du (2012)

Academic performance

Using data from the Gansu Survey of Children and Families (GSCF), family social capital (assessed in the form of intergenerational closure) presented no significant effects on students’ academic performance in rural families

Li and Zheng (2016)

Student learning

Academic achievement

Using a sample of 266 students from Grades 4 to 6 in a suburban elementary school in China, parent‒child communication was found to be the most important factor in promoting student learning, while parental help was not viewed as a useful resource for increasing achievement

Wei (2012)

Academic achievement

Employing an ecological framework of assessment on a sample of 722 migrant children and their parents in Shanghai, family social capital was positively correlated with student achievement of migrant children

Wu et al.(2010)

Family cultural capital

Academic achievement

Using CEPS data, the positive effect of cultural capital on educational achievements was found to be higher among high socioeconomic (SES) families and students attending good-quality schools

Wu et al. (2017)

Academic achievement

Using CEPS data, family embodied cultural capital, family objectified cultural capital, and family institutionalized cultural capital were found to have significant positive effects on the academic achievement of junior high school students

Yu et al. (2022)