Cultural Reproduction, Cultural Mobility, Cultural Resources, or Trivial Effect? A Comparative Approach to Cultural Capital and Educational Performance

Abstract

We assess explanations for the associations between cultural capital (especially cultural activities and cultural possessions) and educational performance of schooled adolescents in 22 Western industrialized countries based on data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). We further ascertain variations in the effect of cultural capital across distinct welfare regimes. Results indicate that multiple forms of cultural capital mediate the association between parental socioeconomic status and children’s educational performance in these industrialized countries. Our analyses also show that, especially under liberal-type welfare regimes, children from higher-status families reap greater benefits from cultural capital than do children from lower-status families.