Intergenerational reproduction of educational advantage: Parental educational assortative mating, cultural capital, and academic achievement among Chinese secondary school students

Abstract

Parental education is widely recognized as a key predictor of children’s academic achievement, yet most research treats it as an individual characteristic rather than a combined family-level resource. This study examines the association between parental educational assortative mating and adolescents’ academic performance, with particular attention to the mediating role of family cultural capital in the Chinese context. Employing data from the China Education Panel Survey and a sample of N=8,873 middle and high school students, this study applies structural equation modelling (SEM) to test the proposed relationships. The findings reveal that students from families where both parents possess higher educational qualifications exhibit demonstrably superior academic performance compared to those from less educated or educationally heterogeneous families. Family cultural capital partially mediates this association, indicating that alignment in parental educational backgrounds contributes to academic advantage by cultivating home environments that are both culturally and educationally conducive. This research extends the scholarly conversation by shifting the focus from individual parental attainment to couple-level educational matching and by illuminating a potential pathway through which educational advantage is transmitted across generations.

Document Type: Original article

Cited as:

Tian, Z., & Liu, Y. (2026). Intergenerational reproduction of educational advantage: Parental educational assortative mating, cultural capital, and academic achievement among Chinese secondary school students. Education and Lifelong Development Research, 3(2): 71-80. https://doi.org/10.46690/elder.2026.02.02

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