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.