Parental social class and GCSE attainment: Re-reading the role of ‘cultural capital’

Figures & data

Table 1. Indicators of parents’ and children’s cultural capital.

Parental Highbrow Cultural Participation	Children’s Highbrow Cultural Participation
Parent goes to the theatre	Child goes to the theatre
Parent goes to museums/art galleries	Child goes to museums/art galleries
Parent visits historical places	Child visits historical places
Parent goes to the opera/operetta
Parent goes to classical music performances
Parental Reading Activities	Children’s Reading Activities
Parent reads for pleasure	Child reads for pleasure
Parent goes to the library	Child goes to the library
Parent is a member of a book club	Child discusses books at home

In the youth survey, children are asked how many books they have read for pleasure in the past month. We constructed a binary measure of child reading for pleasure (1= read 1 or more books in the past month). In the adult interview, parents are asked if they read for pleasure (not including newspapers, magazines, or comics).

Figure 1. Factor analysis of cultural capital measures (rotated factor loadings).

Table 2. Associations between parental social class (NS-SEC) and cultural capital measures.

	Cramer’s V	Chi-square (d.f.)
Parental Highbrow Cultural Participation
Parent goes to the theatre	0.37	98.46 (8) ***
Parent goes to museums/galleries	0.42	131.92 (8) ***
Parent visits historical places	0.42	128.11 (8) ***
Parent goes to the opera/operetta	0.17	21.94 (8) **
Parent goes to classical music performances	0.27	52.11 (8) ***
Children’s Highbrow Cultural Participation
Child goes to the theatre	0.22	35.38 (8) ***
Child goes to museums/galleries	0.23	37.57 (8) ***
Child visits historical places	0.24	42.42 (8) ***
Parental Reading Activities
Parent reads for pleasure	0.30	66.93 (8) ***
Parent goes to the library	0.17	20.44 (8) **
Parent is a member of a book club	0.16	18.88 (8) *
Children’s Reading Activities
Child reads for pleasure	0.11	8.84 (8)
Child goes to the library	0.13	11.43 (8)
Child discusses books at home	0.09	5.97 (8)

Associations calculated on data unweighted and unadjusted for survey design. * p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001.

Table 3. Summary statistics for parental social class (NS-SEC), cultural capital measures and school GCSE scores.

	Freq.	Percent	Mean GCSE score	Std. Dev.
Parental Social Class
Parental NS-SEC
1.1 Large employers and higher managerial	42	5.71	53.31	18.35
1.2 Higher professional occupations	64	8.70	62.08	16.11
2 Lower management/professional occupations	151	20.52	49.40	19.30
3 Intermediate occupations	76	10.33	45.25	20.41
4 Small employers and own account workers	73	9.92	44.23	21.43
5 Lower supervisory and technical occupations	43	5.84	39.26	19.89
6 Semi-routine occupations	88	11.96	38.65	23.60
7 Routine occupations	56	7.61	33.75	21.84
8 Not in employment	143	19.43	31.55	21.01
Parental Highbrow Cultural Participation
Parent goes to the theatre
Yes	352	47.83	49.36	21.16
No	384	52.17	37.64	21.81
Parent goes to museums/ galleries
Yes	336	45.65	49.38	21.07
No	400	54.35	38.09	21.97
Parent visits historical places
Yes	485	65.90	47.93	21.35
No	251	34.10	34.20	21.23
Parent goes to the opera/operetta
Yes	27	3.67	53.82	17.44
No	709	96.33	42.85	22.35
Parent goes to classical music performances
Yes	79	10.73	59.76	16.88
No	657	89.27	41.26	22.03
Children’s Highbrow Cultural Participation
Child goes to the theatre
Yes	380	51.63	48.46	21.33
No	356	48.37	37.68	21.93
Child goes to museums/ galleries
Yes	386	52.45	49.24	22.74
No	350	47.55	36.64	19.76
Child visits historical places
Yes	366	49.73	48.73	22.52
No	370	50.27	37.82	20.67
Parental Reading Activities
Parent reads for pleasure
Yes	579	78.67	45.98	21.41
No	157	21.33	33.16	22.55
Parent goes to the library
Yes	371	50.41	48.39	21.49
No	365	49.59	38.02	21.86
Parent is a member of a book club
Yes	33	4.48	55.67	21.95
No	703	95.52	42.66	22.13
Children’s Reading Activities
Child reads for pleasure
Yes	528	71.74	46.53	22.14
No	208	28.26	34.91	20.40
Child goes to the library
Yes	335	45.52	48.33	22.10
No	401	54.48	39.01	21.54
Child discusses books at home
Yes	205	27.85	–	–
No	531	72.14	–	–
Total n	736	100	43.25	22.27

Summary statistics are unweighted and unadjusted for survey design. Mean GCSE score and standard deviation not available for child discusses books at home due to the statistical disclosure control protocol.

Table 4. Modelling school GCSE outcomes – goodness of fit and parsimony measures.

Model	Explanatory variables	Adjusted R^2	BIC (d.f.)
Initial models
1	NS-SEC	0.16	6582.30 (9)
2	NS-SEC + family housing tenure, + gender (child) + ethnicity (child) + age (child) + year	0.22	6579.38 (19)
+ Parent education
3	NS-SEC + parental education + family housing tenure, + gender (child) + ethnicity (child) + age (child) + year	0.27	6550.59(22)
+ Summated measures
4	NS-SEC + parental education + family housing tenure, + gender (child) + ethnicity (child) + age (child) + year + parent highbrow participation	0.28	6556.20 (25)
5	NS-SEC + parental education + family housing tenure, + gender (child) + ethnicity (child) + age (child) + year + parent highbrow participation + child highbrow participation	0.29	6557.57 (28)
6	NS-SEC + parental education + family housing tenure, + gender (child) + ethnicity (child) + age (child) + year + parent highbrow participation + child highbrow participation + parent reading activities	0.30	6562.95 (31)
7	NS-SEC + parental education + family housing tenure, + gender (child) + ethnicity (child) + age (child) + year + parent highbrow participation + child highbrow participation + parent reading activities + child reading activities	0.31	6570.96 (34)
+ Factor scores
8	NS-SEC + parental education + family housing tenure, + gender (child) + ethnicity (child) + age (child) + year + factor 1 (parent highbrow factor score)	0.28	6541.74 (23)
9	NS-SEC + parental education + family housing tenure, + gender (child) + ethnicity (child) + age (child) + year + factor 1 (parent highbrow factor score) + factor 2 (child factor score)	0.31	6516.25 (24)
10	NS-SEC + parental education + family housing tenure, + gender (child) + ethnicity (child) + age (child) + year + factor 1 (parent highbrow factor score) + factor 2 (child factor score) + factor 3 (parent reading factor score)	0.32	6516.64 (25)
Models of best fit
11	NS-SEC + parental education + family housing tenure, + gender (child) + ethnicity (child) + age (child) + year + parent reading activities + child reading activities	0.31	6542.46 (28)
12	NS-SEC + parental education + family housing tenure, + gender (child) + ethnicity (child) + age (child) + year + factor 2 (child factor score) + factor 3 (parent reading factor score)	0.32	6512.80 (24)

Measures for models that are unweighted and unadjusted for survey design.

Table 5. Linear regression models of school GCSE outcomes.

	Model 2			Model 3			Model 11			Model 12
Linear Regression: GCSE Point Score	Beta	(SE)		Beta	(SE)		Beta	(SE)		Beta	(SE)
Parental NS-SEC
1.1 Large employers and higher managerial	−9.74	(4.71)	*	−9.01	(4.70)		−8.09	(4.66)		−8.50	(4.78)
1.2 Higher professional occupations	0.00			0.00			0.00			0.00
2 Lower management and professional	−13.10	(3.24)	***	−9.55	(3.24)	**	−9.61	(3.19)	**	−9.41	(3.19)	**
3 Intermediate occupations	−16.53	(3.42)	***	−9.51	(3.56)	**	−9.42	(3.66)	*	−8.80	(3.73)	*
4 Small employers and own account workers	−16.72	(4.10)	***	−10.20	(4.12)	*	−10.05	(4.26)	*	−9.28	(4.16)	*
5 Lower supervisory and technical	−21.61	(4.37)	***	−14.01	(4.32)	**	−12.02	(4.14)	**	−11.38	(4.13)	**
6 Semi-routine occupations	−21.71	(4.23)	***	−12.94	(4.53)	**	−12.76	(4.46)	**	−12.74	(4.41)	**
7 Routine occupations	−24.41	(4.19)	***	−14.74	(4.40)	**	−15.39	(4.37)	***	−14.04	(4.35)	**
8 Not in employment	−25.22	(3.80)	***	−16.87	(4.08)	***	−15.75	(4.03)	***	−15.27	(4.00)	***
Housing Tenure
Owned/privately rented	0.00			0.00			0.00			0.00
Social housing	−13.57	(2.52)	***	−11.70	(2.54)	***	−10.44	(2.36)	***	−10.07	(2.36)	***
Gender
Male	0.00			0.00			0.00.			0.00
Female	7.40	(1.90)	***	7.05	(1.82)	***	4.75	(1.85)	*	5.03	(1.84)	**
Ethnicity
White	0.00			0.00			0.00			0.00
Mixed	1.82	(3.83)		−0.93	(4.27)		−0.66	(4.26)		0.63	(4.51)
Asian/Asian British	2.78	(4.45)		0.80	(4.71)		0.72	(4.21)		1.29	(4.18)
Black/Black British	3.85	(4.49)		2.77	(4.45)		1.72	(4.05)		2.71	(4.16)
Other	12.83	(6.81)		9.80	(7.25)		13.29	(7.94)		11.88	(7.17)
Parental Education Level
Higher education				0.00			0.00			0.00
Further education				−7.86	(2.94)	**	−6.18	(2.90)	*	−6.82	(2.80)	*
School-level education				−12.88	(2.42)	***	−10.88	(2.52)	***	−10.87	(2.32)	***
Below school-level education				−16.21	(3.51)	***	−12.24	(3.70)	**	−12.17	(3.59)	**
Parental Reading Activities
No activities							0.00
1 activity							7.31	(3.53)	*
2 activities							10.71	(3.48)	**
3 activities							12.67	(5.17)	*
Children’s Reading Activities
No activities							0.00
1 activity							3.92	(2.22)
2 activities							7.68	(2.56)	**
3 activities							9.00	(2.93)	**
Children’s Cultural Capital Factor Score										3.92	(1.05)	***
Parental Reading Factor Score										2.70	(1.16)	*
Observations	736			736			736			736
Goodness of fit measures
Adjusted R^2	0.22			0.27			0.31			0.32
BIC (d.f.)	6579.38 (19)			6550.59 (22)			6542.46 (28)			6512.80 (24)
BIC (based on deviance)	1720.87			1692.08			1683.96			1654.30
BIC (based on likelihood ratio chi square)	−82.93			−111.72			−119.84			−149.50

Source: Wave 2 UKHLS youth questionnaires with linked NPD records. Adjusted for complex survey design and selection strategy. Models also include age and academic year. *p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001. The model constants are omitted due to statistical disclosure control protocols.