Family Background, Parent-child communication and Children’s Academic Outcomes in China: Empirical Analysis Using Data from CPFS 2018

Abstract

Studies of education stratification in China has not investigated the roles of family SES and parent-child communication styles in children's academic achievement. Using data from China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) of 2018, the study focuses on how parent's communication affect children's academic performance net of the influence of family SES, and whether parent's communication style absorbs part of the association between parent's education value and children's academic performance. Empirical results from multivariate regressions reveal a larger effect of parent's proactive communication on children's Chinese and Math performance, compared to the associations between family SES and children's outcomes. Besides, parent's proactive communication absorbs nearly all effect of parent's higher educational value on children's academics. Given that large mediation effect, it is likely that parents who care more about education can mainly boost the children's academic outcomes via improved communications, rather than other mechanisms. The study challenges past research of educational stratification in China which solely stress on material mechanisms, such as educational expenditure.