An Empirical Investigation of the Intergenerational Transmission of Cultural Capital in Japan Using Longitudinal Data

Abstract

Studies based on Pierre Bourdieu's cultural reproduction theory have been conducted in Japan, revealing relationships between socioeconomic status and cultural capital as well as between cultural capital and children's educational attainments. While early educational selection, which likely increases inequality, has been debated as a social problem in Japan, no study has rigorously assessed either the inequality in the cultural capital to which children are exposed or the intergenerational transmission of cultural capital in the early stages of education. Thus, this study was designed to test the existence of inequality in cultural capital between families. In addition, the study investigates the occurrence of the intergenerational transmission of cultural capital, controlling for unobserved heterogeneity, which previous studies excluded. For these purposes, the study uses data from the Longitudinal Survey of Babies in the 21st Century, which has been administered by the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare since 2001. Following previous studies in Japan and abroad, this study considers reading habits as an embodied form of cultural capital. It then hypothesizes that a family's socioeconomic status, measured by each parent's educational background and annual household income, relate to their reading habits, which in turn influence their child's reading habits. In other words, if parental reading habits, which vary with socioeconomic status, shape their child's reading habits over time, it will indicate whether the intergenerational transmission of cultural capital occurs in Japanese society. This study mainly uses three waves of the data. Excluding magazines and comics, the data contain information regarding the number of books that parents and children read per month, along with demographic and socioeconomic indicators. The study first analyzes if parental educational background and household income create differences in reading habits (i. e., the number of books read per month) by using a hybrid fixed effects model. The study then investigates whether the parents' reading habits relate to their child's, while controlling for unobserved heterogeneity by employing another hybrid fixed effects model. Results indicate that parental educational background and annual household income relate to reading habits. Specifically, mothers with any post-high school education, including professional school or college education, and a higher household income are likely to read more books compared to those with a high school education or less. This is also the case for fathers with a post-high school education. Finally, after demonstrating the relationships between parents' socioeconomic status and cultural capital, the analysis, using the hybrid fixed effects model, shows that both parents' reading habits partly explain between-children differences in the number of books read. Parental educational background (a post-high school education for mothers, and a more than four-year university education for fathers) also had an effect. Importantly, changes in both parents' reading habits significantly predict changes in their child's reading habits, while unobserved heterogeneity is controlled for. Overall, all empirical evidence based on longitudinal analyses indicates the existence of inequality in cultural capital between families and the occurrence of the intergenerational transmission of cultural capital through early family socialization in Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Educational Sociology / Kyoiku-shakaigaku Kenkyu is the property of Japan Society of Educational Sociology and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstrac s.)