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Parent Time Input in Teenager 

Education Matters More Than 

Shadow Education 
 

Xiaoqiao Cheng 

Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China 

“Education is what survives when what has been learned is 

forgotten.” 

–BF Skinner 

N recent years, shadow education—paid private supplementary tutoring 

providing additional educational assistance for students who are prepar-

ing for a variety of examinations—has become one of the fastest growing 

industries in a number of countries around the world, causing concern among 

governments and education policymakers, who believe that shadow educa-

tion exacerbates the financial burden on poor families and exacerbates educa-

tion inequality (Yu & Zhang, 2022). The growing significance of educational 

accomplishments for students’ future careers, combined with the immense 

pressure schools face to maintain their ranking, may lead the majority of par-

ents to seek out private tutoring as the most effective means of enhancing 

their children’s academic competitiveness. However, the opportunities for 

children from various socioeconomic backgrounds to participate in exam-

focused shadow education are frequently mediated by their home economic 

strengths; as a result, children from low-income households face barriers to 

accessing shadow education. For instance, Byun (2019) found in his analysis 

that Seoul families often spend more than twice as much on shadow educa-

tion as their rural counterparts. There is a widespread belief among global re-

searchers that the substantial investment by families of superior economic 
 

 

 

 

 

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BECE, Vol.11, No.1, 2022 1426 

status in shadow education has resulted in higher educational attainment and 

consequently exacerbated the imbalanced gap between students from differ-

ent social strata that is “taken for granted”. Although the government and 

relevant education policymakers have attempted to implement some reforms 

to address these issues, such as providing financial assistance to poor fami-

lies, they have failed to adequately respond to the extraordinary expansion of 

educational aspirations resulting from the existing position of the consolidat-

ed upper and middle classes. Entrich (2015) suggested that highly ranked 

public high schools in metropolitan areas would attract a greater proportion 

of students from affluent families who view extracurricular tutoring as a ne-

cessity during their high school years. This may encourage them to enroll in 

the most prestigious universities, thereby ensuring their social standing re-

mains above average. This provides a plausible explanation for the rise in 

popularity of shadow education. Therefore, numerous types of evidence indi-

cate that students’ participation in shadow schooling is significantly influ-

enced by their social origins and family incomes. 

In this issue, Family Time and Money Inputs in Education and Teen-

ager Development: Interpretation of Social Capital, Cultural Capital, and 

Shadow Education by Li and He (2022) examined the connection between 

family financial and time investments in education and adolescent develop-

ment. This study integrates home time and money inputs in education and 

reveals: there are class differences in family time and money investments in 

education; family time investment in education is the most influential factor 

on adolescent academic performance; social capital (parental participation) 

and cultural capital account for score gaps among students far more than 

shadow education. This article suggests that the influence of shadow educa-

tion on the academic achievement of adolescents is not as great as previously 

believed. In addition to spending more money on off-campus supplemental 

tutoring for their children, parents from middle-class or higher socioeconom-

ic backgrounds also devote more time to accompanying their children. In ad-

dition, extracurricular tutoring on weekdays (Monday through Friday) has a 

considerable detrimental influence on adolescents’ academic performance, 

whereas weekend tutoring has a significant favorable effect. The most im-

portant result of this study is that parents’ direct time investment in their 

children, like parent-child contact and parental companionship, has the big-

gest effect on adolescent academic success. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References 

Byun, S. Y. (2014). Shadow education and academic success in Republic of Korea. In 

Korean education in changing economic and demographic contexts (pp. 39-58). 

Springer, Singapore. 



 

BECE, Vol.11, No.1, 2022 1427 

Entrich, S. R. (2015). The decision for shadow education in Japan: Students’ choice or 

parents’ pressure? Social Science Japan Journal, 18(2):193-216. DOI: 

https://doi.org/10.1093/ssjj/jyv012  

Li, J., & He, R. (2022). Family Time and Money Inputs in Education and Teenager De-

velopment: Interpretation of Social Capital, Cultural Capital, and Shadow Educa-

tion. Best Evidence in Chinese Education, 11(2): 1455-1460. DOI: 

https://doi.org/10.15354/bece.22.ab002  

Yu, J., & Zhang, R. (2022). A review of shadow education. Science Insights Education 

Frontiers, 11(2):1579-1593. DOI: https://doi.org/10.15354/sief.22.re058  

 

 

 

 

 

Correspondence to:  

Xiaoqiao Cheng, Ph.D. 

Nanjing Normal University 
Nanjing 211200 

Jiangsu 

China 
E-mail: xqcheng2008@vip.163.com 

Conflict of Interests: None. 

Doi: 10.15354/bece.22.co011 

 

https://doi.org/10.1093/ssjj/jyv012
https://doi.org/10.15354/bece.22.ab002
https://doi.org/10.15354/sief.22.re058
mailto:xqcheng2008@vip.163.com

