Factors influencing Chinese parents’ willingness to send children to study abroad: findings from the China family panel studies

ABSTRACT

Although there is a growing trend in China of students’ willingness to study abroad, the factors influencing parents’ willingness to send children to study abroad remain understudied. Based on the data of family panel studies in China, we tested the factors influencing parents’ willingness to send children to study abroad. Our findings showed that parents’ educational expectations and professional reputations significantly increased parents’ willingness, with the former having the greatest impact on willingness than other factors. Interestingly, Communist Party members had a low probability of sending children to study abroad. We found no significant differences between urban and rural areas regarding the impact of parents’ educational expectations, professional reputation and political status on parents’ willingness to send children to study abroad, yet urban residents were more willing and more likely than rural residents to send children to study abroad because of environmental problems.

KEYWORDS:

• Willingness to study abroad
• urban–rural heterogeneity
• binary logistic model
• Fisher permutation test
• China

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Xingchen Zhu

Xingchen Zhu is a PhD student at the School of Education, Liaoning Normal University. His research focuses on sociology of education and moral education.

Shuping Yang

Shuping Yang is a professor at the School of Education, Liaoning Normal University. Her research focuses on sociology of education and moral education.