Parental cultural capital and student school performance in mathematics and science across nations

The authors' purpose was to examine the relationship between three forms of cultural capital—the embodied, the objectified, and the institutionalized—and student performance in mathematics and science. Their analysis of Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study 2011 data from 32 countries and regions revealed that parental expectation (the embodied cultural capital) had the strongest association with student performance. Parental education (the institutionalized cultural capital) and book possession (the objectified cultural capital) were also significant, with some exceptions. However, their relationship with student performance was relatively weaker. This suggested that the significant relationship between cultural capital and student performance holds in the 32 countries included in the sample, about 4 decades after Bourdieu first introduced the concept (i.e., students with higher parental cultural capital are more likely to perform better in mathematics and science).