







































 

 

 

 

 

Family Capital and the Quality of Senior 

Secondary Education Opportunities: 

An Analysis Based on the Post-Junior 

Secondary Education Tracking in 

County B of Jiangsu Province 

 
Xinzhuo Zhu, Jingya Luo 

 
Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, Hubei, China 

 

 

Abstract: The disparities in the quality of senior secondary education 

opportunities are one of key topics in educational equity research in 
China as they have a critical impact on students’ access to higher 

education and even their future occupational attainments. Students’ 
senior secondary education opportunities are related to multiple factors. 

This study attempted to examine the relationship between family capital 

and the quality of children’s senior secondary education opportunities. 
The research into the post-junior secondary education tracking in 

County B of Jiangsu Province demonstrated that compared with 
vocational secondary education opportunities, children’s access to 

general senior secondary education (including ordinary and key high 

schools) was significantly and positively affected by family social capital 
and less so by family cultural capital, but had a weak correlation with 

family economic capital; and that cultural capital had more significant 

impact on children’s admission to high-quality senior secondary schools 
than to ordinary high schools. Subjective aspects of family capital 

helped improve the access to ordinary senior secondary education of 
children from underprivileged classes, whilst objective aspects of family 

capital could limit their key high school enrollment opportunity. It was 

suggested that the government push through the implementation of the 
“quota allocation policy” to promote balanced distribution of high 

achieving students; and that disadvantaged families make more efforts to 
increase their cultural capital, and schools and communities provide 

more support to disadvantaged groups to compensate for their paucity of 

cultural capital and to upgrade the quality of senior secondary 
education opportunities of their children. 



Zhu & Luo. (Hubei). Family Capital and the Quality of Senior Secondary Education Opportunities. 

BECE, Vol.13, No.1, 2023 1680 

Best Evidence in Chinese Education 2023; 13(1):1679-1688. 

Doi: 10.15354/bece.23.ar029 

How to Cite: Zhu, X., & Luo, J. (2023). Family capital and the quality of senior 

secondary education opportunities: An analysis based on the post-junior secondary 

education tracking in county B of Jiangsu province. Best Evidence in Chinese 

Education, 13(1):1679-1688. 

Keywords: Family Capital, Cultural Capital, Economic Capital, Social Capital, Senior 

Secondary Education Opportunities, Post-Junior Secondary Education Tracking 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

Correspondence to: Xinzhuo Zhu, School of Education, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 

430074, Hubei, China. E-mail: 57097061@qq.com  

Conflict of Interests: None. 
 

© 2023 Insights Publisher. All rights reserved. 

Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the 

Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 License 

(http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of 

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Zhu & Luo. (Hubei). Family Capital and the Quality of Senior Secondary Education Opportunities. 

BECE, Vol.13, No. 1, 2023 1681 

 

Introduction 

As a result of the universalization of compulsory education and the increasing populari-

zation of senior secondary education in China, child school enrollment is no longer an 

issue, and high-quality education resources have become the most pressing demands of 

the public. To undertake reliable studies of the equity of educational opportunities, we 

need first to identify the quality levels of and quality gaps in educational opportunities, 

and then to examine whether all groups have equitable access to educational resources 

of varying quality levels. 

Students’ access to education opportunities is affected by multiple factors such 

as social structure, national policy, family background, etc. However, compared with 

social structures and national policies (macro factors), family capital can more reveal 

the micro mechanism of access to education opportunities. Some components of family 

capital can be changed by individuals through their own efforts, and thus it offers more 

useful implications for education research. This article focuses on the effects of family 

capital on the quality of children’s senior secondary education opportunities in attempt 

to provide explanations for their unequal access to high school education resources. 

The Analytical Framework and Research Hypotheses 

Based on the objective and subjective aspects of family capital, this study tries to ex-

plore more practical and operational methods for family capital exploitation and explain 

the paths of the influences of each element of family capital on the quality of children’s 

senior secondary education opportunities. 

First, family economic capital is a key objective factor influencing the quality 

of children’s high school education opportunities. Economically advantaged families 

can provide their children with superior educational conditions and high-quality educa-

tional resources, including residence in the ideal school district, private tutoring, after-

school training programs, etc. Such money investment help improve child academic 

achievements, which in turn, makes children more successful in the competition for 

high-quality senior secondary education opportunities. In light of this, the study propos-

es hypothesis 1 (H1): Family economic capital has a positive effect on the quality of 

children’s senior secondary education opportunities; the more investment parents make 

in child education, the higher the quality of children’s high school education opportuni-

ties. 

Second, empirical research from China and other countries confirm that family 

cultural capital can predict the quality of children’s senior secondary education oppor-

tunities. Families with more cultural capital usually place more premiums to the quality 

of their children’s education and create ideal home cultural atmospheres for their chil-

dren to form proper learning attitudes and habits, which in turn constitute their ad-

vantages in educational competition. As a result, the study raises the hypotheses below: 

H2: Home cultural capital exerts a positive impact on the quality of children’s high 

school education opportunities; the more cultural capital the family has, the higher the 

quality of the children’s senior secondary education opportunities.  



Zhu & Luo. (Hubei). Family Capital and the Quality of Senior Secondary Education Opportunities. 

BECE, Vol.13, No. 1, 2023 1682 

 

H2a: The higher the parents’ education level, the better the quality of children’s high 

school education opportunities. 

H2b: The bigger the size of home book collection, the higher the quality of the chil-

dren’s senior secondary education opportunities. 

H2c: The higher importance the family attaches to child education, the better the quali-

ty of children’s high school education opportunities. 

Third, in recent years, home social capital is also regarded as an important pre-

dictor of children’s access to senior secondary education. In contrast with economic and 

cultural capital, family social capital influences child access to education opportunities 

primarily through subjective factors. Increased social capital can offset the limitation 

imposed on children’s education opportunities by objective factors. Therefore, we pro-

pose the following hypotheses: 

H3: Home social capital poses a positive effect on the quality of children’s high school 

education opportunities; the more social capital the family has, the higher the quality of 

children’s senior secondary education opportunities. 

H3a: The more productive the parent-child communication, the better the quality of 

children’s high school education opportunities. 

H3b: The more effective the parental supervision of child learning, the higher the quali-

ty of children’s senior secondary education opportunities.  

H3c: The higher the frequency of parent-teacher communication, the better the quality 

of children’s high school education opportunities. 

Research Design 

Data 

The research team collected data through the survey on the relationship between family 

education and educational tracking among junior secondary school graduates 2017 in B 

County, Jiangsu Province. County B, located in the north of Jiangsu Province, has a 

total area of 1467 square kilometers, most of which is constituted by plains. It has 14 

towns and one development zone under its jurisdiction, with a population of about 

900000. The railway transportation began at the end of 2020 in the county. Basically, it 

is an agriculture-dominated county. According to the comprehensive evaluation of the 

GDP and GDP per capita of 54 counties (cities) in Jiangsu Province by the Statistical 

Yearbook of Jiangsu Province (2018), the socio-economic development of County B is 

approximately of the middle level of the province. In 2017, the enrollment rate of gen-

eral senior secondary schools in County B was 56.4%. County B is representative of its 

kind in the whole country in terms of economic, social, and educational development. 

There are five general senior secondary schools and one vocational secondary 

school (School Y) in County B. In this survey, 902 subjects (1/5 of the total number of 

grade ten students in the county) were sampled from the tenth graders of the six high 



Zhu & Luo. (Hubei). Family Capital and the Quality of Senior Secondary Education Opportunities. 

BECE, Vol.13, No. 1, 2023 1683 

 

schools by stratified sampling. Considering that there are differences in class type 

among the five general high schools and that students in the experimental classes are 

fewer than those in the ordinary classes, only students of odd numbers were sampled in 

experimental classes in each school, while students in ordinary classes are randomly 

selected on the basis of the whole class. Classes in School Y are set according to spe-

cialties; students from various specialties were included in the sample. A total of 902 

questionnaires were distributed in this survey. After eliminating invalid questionnaires, 

the research team obtained 861 valid questionnaires representing a validity rate of 

95.5%. 

Variables 

The Dependent Variables 

In this study, the dependent variable is the quality of the subject’s senior secondary ed-

ucation opportunity, and thus high schools that those junior secondary graduates en-

rolled in were divided into different ranks to define the quality levels of various high 

school education opportunities. 

According to the enrollment periods of the schools surveyed, senior secondary 

education opportunities in County B were classified into three quality levels: School E, 

as the only high school in County B that can select students in the first enrollment peri-

od after the senior secondary school entrance examination, was defined as the high 

quality general high school (level one); Schools D, B, C and A were classified as ordi-

nary general high schools (level two); School Y was a vocational secondary school at 

the third level. 

Independent Variables 

 Family Economic Capital 

In this study, family economic capital was measured by household annual investment in 

education, a category-based interval variable. The logarithm of the median of the inter-

val was incorporated in the analysis. The value of the logarithm was positively correlat-

ed with the family’s economic capital. The family’s annual investment in education 

included its annual expenditure on after-school training. 

 Family Cultural Capital 

In this study, parental education levels, the family book collection size, and parents’ 

educational concepts were used to measure institutionalized, objectified, and embodied 

cultural capital of the family, respectively. 

 Family Social Capital 

Social capital of the family was divided into two dimensions: “parent-child communica-

tion” and “behavior supervision”, according to the commonly used method of opera-

tionalization. 

 

Control Variables 



Zhu & Luo. (Hubei). Family Capital and the Quality of Senior Secondary Education Opportunities. 

BECE, Vol.13, No. 1, 2023 1684 

 

There are 4 control variables in this study: gender (1 = female, 2 = male), place of resi-

dence (1 = urban, 2 = rural), number of siblings (1 = without siblings, 2 = with a sibling 

or siblings) and type of junior secondary school (1 = urban junior secondary school, 2 = 

rural junior secondary school). 

The Treatment of Missing Values 

As missing data of the variable “household annual investment in education” was as high 

as 28%, multiple imputation was adopted to address this issue in the sample analysis.  

We included all variables in the calculation model of multiple imputation and obtained 

10 independent data sets after interpolating missing values. Statistical analysis of the 10 

data sets was conducted and the estimate of the model was established by integrating 

the results of these processed data. 

Data Analysis Methods 

Since the dependent variable in this study is a three-category nominal variable, the hier-

archical and multivariate logistic regression model was adopted in data analysis. This 

model is intended to explain the role and strength of the independent variable X in pre-

dicting the probability of occurrence of the dependent variable Y, and that the depend-

ent variable Y has multiple types of values. In the statistical analysis, first “enrolment in 

the vocational secondary schools” was used as a reference to identify the differences in 

enrollment between the vocational secondary school and ordinary and high-quality gen-

eral high schools, and then “enrollment in ordinary general high schools was used as a 

reference to focus on the differences in enrollment between ordinary and high-quality 

general high schools.  

Findings of Data Analysis 

Logistic Regression Analysis of the Effects of the Fami-

ly Capital-related Variables on the Quality of Child 

Senior Secondary Education Opportunities 

The results of model one show that, girls’ probabilities of entering ordinary general 

high schools and high-quality general high schools (compared with the vocational sec-

ondary school) were 0.63 times and 0.68 times those of boys, respectively; that urban 

students’ probability of entering the high-quality general high school was 2.1 times that 

of their rural peers; that the number of siblings had no effect on students’ enrollment in 

the ordinary general high school, but had a significant influence on their enrollment in 

the high-quality general high school (children without siblings are nearly 100% more 

likely to enter the high-quality general senior secondary school than their peers with 

siblings); and that students who had studied in urban junior secondary schools were 2.2 

times and 2.4 times more likely to enter ordinary general high schools and high-quality 

general high schools, respectively, than their peers who had studied in rural junior sec-

ondary school. There were no significant influences of gender and types of junior sec-



Zhu & Luo. (Hubei). Family Capital and the Quality of Senior Secondary Education Opportunities. 

BECE, Vol.13, No. 1, 2023 1685 

 

ondary schools on enrollment in the ordinary general high school and high-quality gen-

eral high school (when the comparison is limited between these two categories of 

schools), but the influences of the place of residence and number of siblings remained. 

When the variable of family economic capital was incorporated in model two, 

the regression results demonstrated that there was no significant difference in the im-

pact of home investment in education on child education tracking at the senior second-

ary level (general or vocational education) or on child school streaming between high-

quality and ordinary senior secondary schools.  

Model three was meant to examine the effect of family cultural capital on the 

quality of child senior secondary education opportunity. Statistical results showed that 

the children’s probability of entering the high-quality general high school (compared 

with the vocational high school) would increase by 15.2% with each one year increase 

of paternal education; that the size of family book collection was positively related only 

to children’s access to high-quality general senior secondary education (compared with 

vocational education); and that parents’ educational concepts had positive effects on 

child access to both ordinary and high-quality general senior secondary education. Pa-

ternal education level and the number of books in the home significantly promoted chil-

dren’s access to the high-quality general senior secondary education (compared with the 

ordinary general high school education), while the regression coefficient of the variable 

of parents’ educational concepts was not significant. 

Model four showed the effect of family social capital on child senior secondary 

education opportunity. Parent-child communication as social capital could only increase 

children’s chances of entering the ordinary general high school; children’s probability 

of enrolling in the ordinary general high school (compared with the vocational second-

ary school) increased by 23.9% with one-score increase in parent-child communication. 

Parent-teacher communication has a significant positive impact on children’s admission 

to high-quality general high school. The higher the frequency of communication be-

tween parents and teachers, the more likely it was for children to enter the high-quality 

general high school (compared with the vocational secondary school). Behavior super-

vision has a positive impact on child access to both ordinary and high-quality general 

senior secondary education. With every one point increase of family behavior supervi-

sion, children’s probability of entering ordinary and high-quality general high school 

would increase by 71% and 82.4%, respectively. In the comparison of high-quality and 

ordinary general high school education, the influence of parent-child communication 

and behavior supervision was no longer significant, but parent-teacher communication 

could still effectively predict child enrollment in the high-quality general high school. 

Model 5 included the variables of family economic capital, cultural capital, and 

social capital, which could reflect the comprehensive impact of family capital on the 

quality of children’s education opportunities. First, the coefficients of variables of gen-

der, place of residence, number of siblings and type of junior secondary school became 

smaller compared with those in model one, and the significance of the variable of gen-

der disappeared, indicating that family capital can somewhat bridge the gaps in senior 

secondary education opportunities caused by urban-rural division, gender difference 

and number of siblings. Second, the regression coefficient of the variable of family in-

vestment in education was significantly smaller compared with that in model two, 

which means that the effect of economic capital is likely to be mediated by cultural and 



Zhu & Luo. (Hubei). Family Capital and the Quality of Senior Secondary Education Opportunities. 

BECE, Vol.13, No. 1, 2023 1686 

 

social capital. Third, in models three, four, and five, the coefficients of variables related 

to cultural capital remain significant, and the coefficient of paternal education level and 

the size of home book collection remain stable, indicating that institutionalized cultural 

capital and objectified cultural capital have a consistent and independent positive im-

pact on the quality of child high school education opportunities. In addition, the regres-

sion coefficient of parents’ educational concepts has increased, indicating that there 

existed interaction between embodied cultural capital and other family capital-related 

variables. Last, with the incorporation of the variables of economic and cultural capital, 

the regression coefficients of variables of parent-child communication and behavior 

supervision showed a growing tendency, indicating that there was interaction between 

domestic social capital and economic and cultural capital. The positive effect of non-

domestic social capital like the frequency of parent-teacher communication turned 

negative and was no longer significant, indicating that after controlling for other family 

capital-related variables, non-domestic social capital no longer had an impact on the 

quality of children’s education opportunities, and the effect of non-domestic social capi-

tal was likely to be mediated by other family capital-related variables. 

A Comparison of the Effects of Family Capital-Related 

Variables 

This study calculated the standardized logistic regression coefficients to compare the 

effects of home economic, cultural, and social capital on the quality of high school edu-

cation opportunities. The results showed that regarding their respective influences on 

child access to general senior secondary education (compared with vocational second-

ary education), the absolute value of the standardized regression coefficient of the vari-

able of social capital was significantly greater than that of cultural capital, and that the 

effect of economic capital on the quality of children’s educational opportunities was 

minimal. Only cultural capital plays an important role in child access to high-quality 

general senior secondary education (compared with ordinary general high education). 

Additionally, the standardized regression coefficients of subjective factors (parents’ 

educational concepts, parent-child communication, and behavior supervision) were sig-

nificantly greater than those of objective factors (the paternal education level and size of 

family book collection) in terms of their effects on child enrollment in the general sen-

ior secondary school (compared with the vocational secondary school); Regarding their 

influences on child admission to high-quality general high schools (compared with or-

dinary general high schools), the standardized regression coefficients of objective fac-

tors were significantly bigger than those of subjective factors. That demonstrated that 

subjective factors played a more important role than objective ones in general vs. voca-

tional tracking, while in high-quality vs. ordinary general senior secondary education 

streaming, the opposite was true. 

 

Conclusions and Discussions 



Zhu & Luo. (Hubei). Family Capital and the Quality of Senior Secondary Education Opportunities. 

BECE, Vol.13, No. 1, 2023 1687 

 

i. There are prominent differences between urban and rural areas in the quality of 

senior secondary education opportunities. There exist considerable disparities 

between urban and rural junior secondary school students in the access to both 

ordinary and high-quality general high school education, with urban students 

being particularly advantaged in accessing high-quality general senior second-

ary education. 

ii. Family capital affects the quality of children’s senior secondary education op-

portunities through cultural reproduction. Compared with economic and social 

capital, cultural capital has a relatively more stable and independent influence 

on the quality of senior high school education opportunities and is less suscep-

tible to other aspects of family capital. Home cultural capital is the most power-

ful predictor of children’ ordinary and key high school enrollment opportunities. 

iii. Family economic capital has no significant impact on the quality of child senior 

secondary education opportunities. The research findings show that the amount 

of family investment in education has no salient association with children’s 

admission to the ordinary general high school (compared with the vocational 

high school) and to the key general high school (compared with the vocational 

secondary school and ordinary general high school). 

iv. The impact of home cultural capital on the quality of child senior secondary 

education opportunities has its limitations. Parents’ educational concepts have a 

positive effect on children’s admission to the ordinary and key general high 

schools (compared with the vocational secondary school), while the paternal 

education level and size of family book collection can positively influence 

children’s enrollment in the key general high school (compared with the ordi-

nary general high school). 

v. Behavior supervision as social capital imposes greater effects on the quality of 

child senior secondary education opportunity than parent-child communication. 

Domestic social capital (parent-child communication and behavior supervision) 

has significant effects on children’s entrance to ordinary general high schools 

(compared with vocational secondary schools) and keys general high schools 

(compared with vocational secondary schools), and the impact of behavior su-

pervision is far greater than that of parent-child communication. 

vi. Subjective aspects of family capital affect the general vs. vocational education 

tracking, while its objective aspects influence the ordinary vs. high-quality 

general senior secondary education streaming. Subjective aspects of family 

capital such as parents’ educational concepts, parent-child communication, and 

behavior supervision have greater impact on child performance in the general 

vs. vocational education tracking than objective aspects such as family invest-

ment in education, the paternal education level, and the size of family book col-

lection, which gives disadvantaged children motivation to compete for more 

general senior secondary education opportunities.  
 

 

 

 

 



Zhu & Luo. (Hubei). Family Capital and the Quality of Senior Secondary Education Opportunities. 

BECE, Vol.13, No. 1, 2023 1688 

 

The Chinese version of this article has been published in Journal of Central China Normal Uni-

versity (Humanities and Social Sciences),61(1):152-164. The English version has been authorized 

for being publication in BECE by the author(s) and the Chinese journal. 

 

朱新卓 & 骆婧雅. (2022). 家庭资本与高中阶段教育机会获得的质量 — 基于江苏省 B 县初中

后教育分流的分析. 华中师范大学学报 (人文社会科学版), 61(1):152-164. 

 

 

Received: 11 November 2022 

Revised: 04 December 2022 

Accepted: 11 December 2022 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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