Money Alone Can’t Buy Positive Education Outcomes in China

Tuesday, February 16th, 2016 Shilin LiuFebruary 16th, 2016 • Bookmarks: 97

For children and adolescents, academic attainment is an important tool for gaining economic advantages—more education often translates to a higher paying job and better later-life outcomes. Scholars in the education field are curious about how families impact educational attainment in a child’s early years.

Broadly speaking, family resources can be categorized into monetary resources, such as parental income, and non-monetary resources, such as parental involvement. Which resources play a more significant role in children’s academic performance? The answer to this question may vary depending on the social context. A recent research study by Airan Liu and Yu Xie shows that, in the Chinese context, among monetary resources that typically include a family’s income, assets, and educational expenses, only parental income is associated with children’s educational achievement—even after controlling for educational expenses. Conversely, all non-monetary resources, particularly parenting practices, significantly affect children’s achievement regardless of family socioeconomic status. The study provides some evidence to help policymakers understand and explore effective ways to enhance students’ academic achievement.

The researchers used data from the 2010 China Family Panel Study (CFPS) database, which is the only national database in China that measures adolescents’ and adults’ cognitive skills using standardized tests. The study examined 2,949 cases and measured the extent to which families’ monetary and non-monetary resources correlate with children’s vocabulary and reading scores (verbal ability), which was the researchers’ chosen indicator for educational attainment.

The researchers considered three components of family monetary resources: income per capita, assets, and direct educational expenses. To illustrate non-monetary resources, the researchers used three measures: parents’ academic expectations for children, level of parent involvement in a child’s education, and the family environment (measured by interviewers’ observations of how the environment reflects parents’ interest in their child’s education). By using different regression models, the study measures which resources, monetary or non-monetary, have the most significant effect on a student’s verbal ability scores.

The analysis reveals several important findings: Among all monetary resource measures, which include educational expenses, only family income has a significant effect on children’s verbal ability. By comparison, non-monetary factors are significantly and positively associated with children’s academic achievement—especially parenting practices. Children’s test scores are more responsive to changes in parenting behaviors than to changes in family income. Parenting behaviors can include setting high expectations for children and being directly involved with their educational activities. The researchers found that these parenting behaviors did not vary systematically by family socioeconomic status, as most Chinese parents are engaged in their children’s education.

Some unique characteristics of Chinese society may play into this relationship. Given that traditional Confucian culture places a great deal of importance on a child’s academic achievement, it seems reasonable to believe that Chinese parents tend to set similar expectations for their children across different socioeconomic backgrounds. The Chinese government’s strong role in education may also contribute to the relative unimportance of family monetary resources in contributing to student success. In China, nearly all primary and secondary schools, including the highest-ranking ones, are public and generally affordable. This may explain why the influence of family monetary resources on children’s educational outcomes is not as profound as that of non-monetary resources.

China’s centralized approach to education has been criticized by experts in the field who argue that it overlooks individual children’s unique needs, training them to become “exam-taking machines” rather than self efficient and capable adults. Other research has questioned the ability of these highly involved parenting practices to contribute positively to children’s growth—these critics say Chinese parents may be pushing children too hard or setting unrealistic expectations. However, this study sheds some light on how China provides relatively equal educational opportunities for all children, regardless of socioeconomic status, and ensures access to education for low-income citizens. To foster better educational outcomes among children, both policymakers and the general public need to understand that, in China, family non-monetary resources play a larger role. Understanding how to leverage the positive side of the Chinese parenting style may help policymakers worldwide replicate China’s successes.