Family Background, Private Tutoring, and Children’s Educational Performance in Contemporary China

Abstract

The prevalence of private tutoring is often noted in the literature on education in East Asia. Empirical evidence concerning the causes and consequences of private tutoring, however, is sparse, especially for China. In this article, we draw upon data from the 2010 China Family Panel Studies to explore whether children’s tutoring experiences are influenced by family background and whether private tutoring benefits children’s educational performance. Our empirical analyses show that higher parental education, higher family income, and fewer siblings are all associated with a higher likelihood of private tutoring and higher levels of spending on it. Furthermore, private tutoring and spending on tutoring are predictive of higher verbal and math performances, although the difference in math performance between children who received private tutoring and those who did not is statistically insignificant after controlling for family background.

The influences of family background and structural factors on children’s academic performances: A cross-country comparative study

“…A family's economic condition determines how much parents can invest in their children's education and development (Becker, 1991;Blau, 1999;Brooks-Gunn and Duncan, 1997;Coleman, 1988;Dahl and Lochner, 2012;Duncan et al, 1994;Duncan et al, 1998;Kaushal et al, 2011). Families with higher levels of income can provide material advantages, such as more learning opportunities and resources, that is, high-quality private tutoring (Zhang and Xie, 2015). Another perspective emphasizes families' non-monetary resources, such as parenting attitudes and practices, and family environments (Alexander et al, 1994;Baharudin and Luster, 1998;Cheadle and Amato, 2011;Chen et al, 2000;Davidov and Grusec, 2006;Davis-Kean, 2005;Garrett et al, 1994;Heckman, 2006;Lareau, 2011;Mayer, 1997).…”

Academic Performance of Students: the Effect of Class Room Level Factors and Private Tutoring

“…Ha and Harpham [20] have found that private tutoring does increase the reading ability although it does not have an impact on the writing and numeracy skills of the grade 8 students of Vietnam. Further, Zhang [14], has observed on the effects of private tutoring and identified it has mixed effects on mathematical, Chinese language and English language in China (also in [21]).…”

“…Individual level variables related to PT are considered as follows; PT participation (as dummy assigning value 1 if participant), the private tuition expenditure incurred by the household (sum of tuition fee and all other related expenses) [17], number of private tuition classes per week, average private tutoring hours a student take per week. Except the student demography details such as gender, age, socio-economic status of family which comprise of household expenditure, father's and mother's education level and the employment status [1,17,20] were taken as the main controlling factors. Further, this study considered the number of siblings as an explanatory variable [1,2,11,28] because of its spillover effects.…”

Science or liberal arts? Cultural capital and college major choice in China

“…Following this line, many studies find shadow education to be positively correlated with children's educational success (e.g., Dumais ; Kaufman and Gabler ). In light of the previous literatures on shadow education in East Asia (e.g., Bray et al ; Kuan ; Stevenson and Baker ; Zhang and Xie ), we in our supplementary analysis examine whether or not shadow education during senior high school mediates between family background and choice of college study fields. There could be various types of shadow education and we here focus on the one that has been frequently studied in the previous literature, that is, outside‐school tutoring.…”