Family economic status, cultural capital, and academic achievement: The case of Taiwan

Taiwan is a Confucian society where intergenerational transmission of educational advantages has-been assumed to be limited. Hence, we empirically examined the effects of family economic and cultural resources on student academic achievement in Taiwan. We analyzed secondary data (n=12,527) in the Taiwan Educational Panel Survey (TEPS). Our findings indicate that parental cultural capital is strongly associated with parent's economic status and has a strong effect on student's cultural capital, and their academic achievement. Parent's economic status is correlated with student's academic achievement, but the correlation is weaker than in a number of western societies. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.