Does Cultural Capital Really Affect Academic Achievement? New Evidence from Combined Sibling and Panel Data

• Published in: Sociology of education Vol. 84; no. 4; pp. 281 - 298
• Main Author: Jaeger, Mads Meier
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA American Sociological Association 01.10.2011; Sage; SAGE Publications
• Subjects: Academic Achievement; Attribution Theory; Bias; Bourdieu, Pierre (1930-2002); Child Development; Children; Children & youth; Correlation; Cultivation; Cultural Capital; Economic models; Educational Attainment; Educational sociology; Estimates; Evidence; Extracurricular activities; Familiarity; Families & family life; Family; Family (Sociological Unit); Family Life; High socioeconomic status; Literature; Longitudinal Studies; Low income groups; Mathematics Tests; Measurement; Mobility; National Longitudinal Survey of Youth; Observational research; Optimism; Outcomes of Education; Panel data; Parents; Qualitative research; Reading Tests; Research design; Scores; Siblings; Social Mobility; Social Reproduction; Social Theories; Socioeconomic Status; Sociology; Sociology of education. Educational systems. Lifelong education; Studies; Surveys; Test scores; Variables; Young adults; Denmark; fixed effect; cultural capital; Bourdieu; academic success; Follow-up study; Bourdieu (P.); Cultural capital; Academic Achievement
• ISSN: 0038-0407; 1939-8573
• DOI: 10.1177/0038040711417010

This article provides new estimates of the causal effect of cultural capital on academic achievement. The author analyzes data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth—Children and Young Adults and uses a fixed effect design to address the problem of omitted variable bias, which has resulted in too optimistic results in previous research. After controlling for family and individual fixed effects, the author reports that (1) six indicators of cultural capital have mostly positive direct effects on children's reading and math test scores, (2) the effect of cultural capital is smaller than previously reported, and (3) the effect of cultural capital varies in high and low socioeconomic status (SES) environments. Results mostly support cultural reproduction theory (cultural capital more important in high SES environments) for cultural capital indicators capturing familiarity with legitimate culture and mostly support cultural mobility theory (cultural capital more important in low SES environments) for indicators capturing "concerted cultivation."