The Impact of Economic Capital, Social Capital and Cultural Capital: Chinese Families’ Access to Educational Resources

Family background can influence an individual’s access to educational resources. Specifically, an advantaged family background can promote an individual’s access to educational resources. This study constructs a model to analyze the impact of the economic, social and cultural capital of Chinese families on their children’s education. The results show that all three types of capital have significant effects on individual education but a family’s cultural capital has the strongest effect. Furthermore, the father’s background influences a child’s education more than the mother’s for all three types of capital. The present study affirms the importance of the resource-centered conception of economic, social and cultural capital that significantly influences inequality as a predominant issue in China.