Scaling the latent variable Cultural Capital via Item Response Models and Latent Class Analysis

Abstract

One of the main tasks of an educational system is to enrich the Cultural Capital of its students. The Cultural Capital linked to social origins is considered crucial in determining students'social life and subsequent professional achievement. This work moves from an ad hoc survey carried out on a sample of students who enrolled or applied for an entrance test at the university. The Cultural Capital is treated as a latent variable which students are supposed to possess at a greater or lesser degree. Latent Class Analysis is adopted in order to provide a non arbitrary scaling of Cultural Capital and to sort out mutually exclusive classes of students. Moreover, Item Response Models are implemented to assess the calibration of the questionnaire as an instrument to measure the Cultural Capital of the surveyed population. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011.