Family (and) culture: The effect of cultural capital within the family on the cultural participation of adolescents

• We model participation patterns of adolescents in pop/rock and art/heritage.
• A multilevel model is used to distinguish individual and family effects.
• Adolescent education level and gender affect art/heritage participation.
• Education and participation of the mother have the largest family-level effects.
• Multimedia in the household have a negative effect.

Bourdieu's theory of social reproduction states that cultural capital is passed down from generation to generation through the habitus formed within the family of origin. This cultural capital presents itself in three different states: as embodied (dispositions and practices), institutionalized (educational qualifications), and objectified (cultural goods). In this scheme, the presence of all three forms of cultural capital in the family can be assumed to have an impact on the cultural participation patterns of adolescents. This article focuses on the cultural participation patterns of adolescents, in the forms of art and heritage participation and attending pop or rock concerts. Using data from the “Cultural Participation Survey 2003–2004”, a multilevel model is constructed—with the presence of the three forms of cultural capital in the family as family-level effects and the educational position, age, and gender of the adolescent as individual-level effects. We find support for Bourdieu's reproduction model for art and heritage participation, but the educational level and gender of the adolescents are also found to be important. We also find significant effects of familial cultural capital on attending pop and rock concerts, which indicates that cultural reproduction mechanisms also, although to a lesser extent, structure participation in these activities.