How do parents affect cultural participation of their children?: Testing hypotheses on the importance of parental example and active parental guidance

•Tests how cultural participation is intergenerationally transmitted.•Distinguishes between parental cultural example and active parental cultural guidance.•Parental cultural participation with and without children show positive effects.•Especially participating together with children in cultural activities is effective.•Effects via respondent's educational level are significant, but less pronounced.

This study examines to what extent, and via what pathways, cultural behaviors are transmitted from one generation to another. Based on social learning theories we expect that, first, parents influence their children's cultural participation by setting a “good” cultural example, and, second, by actively accompanying their children to a theater, museum or concert hall. Besides a direct influence, we expect an indirect effect via the educational performance of the child. We test our hypotheses by applying structural equation models on data from the Family Survey Dutch Population 2009 (N = 2.445). Our results show that parents affect their children's cultural participation mainly by providing them with active parental guidance. Indirect effects through a child's educational attainment are significant, but appear to be less pronounced.