The influence of family capital on tertiary school students’ academic attainment and occupational aspiration : a comparative study in Singapore

Abstract

This study offers a nuanced way of defining and measuring family capital in order to fill the void of previous theoretical and empirical research studies on the influence of family capital on tertiary school students’ academic attainment and occupational aspiration. The study collected original questionnaire survey and interview data to investigate the key factors of family capital. It examines how these key factors would have different effects on two groups of students, native Chinese Singaporean students and Chinese exchange students from Mainland China (Chinese exchange students hereafter) in Singapore’s tertiary schools. Comparative analyses revealed statistically significant differences between native Chinese Singaporean students and Chinese exchange students in terms of the influence that several key factors of family capital had on their academic attainment and occupational aspiration with gender and age as controlled variables. Among all four types of family capital, family cultural capital had consistently played as a fundamentally significant element in promoting students’ academic success and occupational attainment.