Family Socioeconomic Status, Family Investment and Children’s Academic Outcome

The family investment model (FIM) has been used to examine the link between family socioeconomic status (SES) and children’s educational outcomes. In this paper, we test the FIM in the context of rural and urban China. We hypothesise that family SES and academic achievement are mediated through family investment in learning resources, private tutoring, parental expectations, and parental involvement. Using data from 2,913 children in the China Family Panel Study and employing multigroup structural equation modelling, we found that the availability of learning resources positively relates to children’s performance in Chinese but not in maths; private tutoring has no significant impact on academic achievement, and parental expectations positively influence children’s achievement. However, parental involvement has a negative impact on children’s academic achievement in high SES families in urban areas but a positive effect on children from low SES families in rural areas. Practical implications of our findings are discussed.