The Effect of Parents’ Economic, and Social Culture Capital on
Children’s Educational Achievement in Indonesia University of
Education
Carla Monica Iskandar, Framesty Destriyani, Randi Permadi, Yadi Ruyadi, Ade Gafar Abdullah and
Ari Arifin Danuwijaya
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Jl. Dr. Setiabudhi No. 229, Bandung, Indonesia
Keywords: Economic Capital, Socio Cultural Capital, Educational Achievement.
Abstract: This paper discusses the influence of economic, social and cultural capital of parents on children's educational
achievement. We analyze data taken from 122 respondents with Bachelor and Master Degrees in one public
university in Indonesia. It is hypothesized that there is an influence of economic and socio-cultural capital to
the educational achievement of students. This study contradicts the universal view that student achievement
is not closely related to family income or socioeconomic status. The result of our analysis proves that the
social and cultural capital influences educational achievement in various academic and non-academic fields
at around 18%, and economic and socio-cultural capital give effect to education achievement at 14.4%. The
results of this analysis suggest that economic and cultural capital of parents influences students’ education
achievement.
1 INTRODUCTION
In recent years research on family background and
academic success and socio-economic children have
begun to adopt a multi-generational approach, the
results of Møllegaard and Jæger’s study (2015) prove
part of the hypothesis. Apart from parental capital,
they found that the cultural capital of grandparents
(non-economic and social) has a positive effect on the
possibility of grandchildren choosing a secondary
education path higher than any other academic path.
Other studies challenge the two-generation approach
(eg, Bourdieu, 1977, Becker and Tomes, 1986) which
is traditionally used in social strata studies, where the
approach suggests that parents influence children but
other family members do not directly influence
(Björklund and Salvanes, 2010; Mare, 2011; Pfeffer,
2014; Solon, 2014). Identical indicators of children's
educational achievement were economic, cultural and
social capital for three generations within the same
family lineage (see Biblarz, Bengtson, and Bucur,
1996; Warren and Hauser, 1997).
According to the concept of capital (Bourdieu,
1977) and different from the hypothesis Møllegaard
and Jæger (2015), this paper adds two generational
studies empirically measuring economic and socio-
cultural capital by analyzing the influence of various
forms of capital on child achievement. We analyzed
data from the results of a student survey at one public
university in Indonesia. We argue that the economic
and socio-cultural capital of parents may be able to
influence children's achievement in various fields
whether academic or non-academic. The economic
capital of parents should have a big influence
compared to other capital because higher education in
Indonesia does not provide free education to all
people (only to junior high school level), high-income
inequality, and unmet social security. Cultural and
social capital of parents, should not give a big effect
because in Indonesia all children are entitled to get
education. On the other hand, cultural capital of
parents who are intellectuals usually provide more
support to their children to study and finish school at
least equivalent to his parents. The main contribution
of this paper is that we distinguish two types of
parental capital and analyze the effect of these
modalities on achievement in their children's
education.
544
Iskandar, C., Destriyani, F., Permadi, R., Ruyadi, Y., Abdullah, A. and Danuwijaya, A.
The Effect of Parents’ Economic, and Social Culture Capital on Children’s Educational Achievement in Indonesia University of Education.
In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Sociology Education (ICSE 2017) - Volume 2, pages 544-548
ISBN: 978-989-758-316-2
Copyright © 2018 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved

1.1 Two-generation Models
Intergenerational transmission theory usually focuses
on two generations. In economics, parental models in
addition to transferring innate talents to children
through genes, parents are also actively investing
resources in developing skills in children (Becker and
Tomes, 1986). Thus, parents use economic and other
resources to generate capital in children, such as
academic or non-academic ability that in the long run
can provide success.
In sociology, theory (Bourdieu 1977; Coleman
1990) says that, in addition to economic resources,
parents use various types of non-monetary resources
to encourage children's success. In this paper, we use
Bourdieu's concept of economics, culture and social
to be conceptualized qualitatively on parents who
may have an impact on children's educational
achievement.
Social capital refers to the scope and quality of
social networks that can be used to promote one's
interests or transform one form of capital into another
into social networks and connections that can be used
to promote one's interests (Bourdieu, 1986). Bourdieu
(in Møllegaard and Jæger, 2015) argues that families
have different amount and compositions of capital
and different type of capital invested in children.
Economic capital consisting of income and monetary
or other property assets such as stocks (Bourdieu,
1986) can be used to finance the direct costs of
education, such as tuition, or indirect costs such as
those associated with extracurricular. Cultural capital
is inherited from parents to children through
investment and socialization, and this contributes to
the success of education since the home becomes a
learning laboratory so as to give an appreciation of
higher education, and the ability to demonstrate an
academic intelligence to the teachers. Social capital
can improve educational success if parents have
social relationships that facilitate access to education,
for example, prestigious educational institutions or
educational pathways. This theory conceptualizes the
resources that parents have invested in encouraging
children's education. We describe this process in
Figure 1 below:
Figure 1: Conceptual framework illustration.
1.2 Institutional Context and
Hypotheses
The institutional context of this research is students in
one public university in Indonesia. Students within
this university are heterogeneous from different
ethnic, racial and religious backgrounds and with
different social economic backgrounds. We argue that
in this institutional context, some types of capital are
more valuable than others in relation to supporting
children's educational success by their parents.
The economic capital of the university is a state
university that most of the tuition fees of students are
subsidized by the government and given full
scholarships for those who excel, allowing parents to
lightly pay for their children's schooling. In contrast
to economic capital, we hypothesize that non-
monetary resources such as socio-cultural capital can
be a motivation as well for children to achieve
achievement. In cultural capital of parents, we expect
students from families in which their mother-father
has cultural capital to have education more than with
students whose father-mother lacks a culture of
capital. Furthermore, we expect that in higher
education, students whose fathers and mothers have
more cultural capital will be more likely to have
achievements in various fields. In short, we
hypothesize that there is an influence of economic
and socio-cultural capital in educational achievement
of children.
2 METHODS
The method used in this study is a correlational
survey to determine the effect of variable X
(economic capital and socio-cultural capital) of
parents on educational achievement of children. The
data were collected from a survey of 122 respondents
at undergraduate and masters level using a quota
sampling technique. We analyze their educational
achievement (academic, non-academic achievement).
We use the survey because it includes, first, two
generations of the same family; second, information
about college education pretensions for the students
and third, empirical indicators of economic, cultural
and social capital for the generation of parents. We
did not observe economic, cultural and social capital
for both mom and dad, but only for a pair of parents.
Consequently, we could not analyze all the effects of
mother father's coercion on the child. We discussed
about this limitation below.
The Effect of Parents’ Economic, and Social Culture Capital on Children’s Educational Achievement in Indonesia University of Education
545

In addition, we only include students aged 17 to
22 and over. Table 1 provides summary statistics on
all the variables included in the analysis.
Table 1: Respondent Characteristics.
Characteristics
Total
Percentage
Male
34
27,9%
Female
88
72,1%
Senior
25
21%
Junior
17
11,8%
Sophomore
33
27,7%
Freshman
47
39,5%
Bachelor Degree
92
75,4%
Master Degree
30
24,6%
Single
117
95,9%
Married
5
4,1%
Our dependent variable is children's educational
achievement. We distinguish two categories of
educational achievement: (1) academic (2) non-
academic. Table 3 shows data that is approximately
the same as observed in the population (our data is
more inclined to highly educated children because
respondents are more likely to follow the survey than
respondents with low education) so that it can obtain
data of academic achievement of children.
This study used one explanatory variable in the
analysis namely a set of empirical units used to derive
economic, cultural, and social capital in the
generation of parents, as discussed in more detail
below we conceptualize various forms of capital as
latent variables.
In most cases, the family's main advocate is the
father. We included four empirical indicators of
economic capital: (1) fixed employment and high
salaries; (2) scholarship; (3) ownership of property
and assets; (4) giving money and school facilities to
children. We included property ownership indicators
to provide a more complete economic measurement
than relying on revenues and scholarships. In
particular, property ownership is considered a luxury
in Indonesia and an indicator of wealth.
Three empirical indicators of cultural capital
available to parents were also included, such as (1)
higher education of the elderly 2) the rewards of
others and (3) parental position and connection. For
each question item, the student can answer with code
(5) is SL: Always / strongly agree / very correct; code
(4) is SR: Often / agree / correct; code (3) is KD:
Sometimes / neutral / moderate; code (2) is HT:
Almost never / disagree / not true; and code (1) is TP:
Never / strongly disagree / very untrue.
3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The results of the study parents' economic capital in
support of children's achievement showed that 48%
of respondents actually had a parent who has a
permanent job with a high salary. 84% of respondents'
parents support full tuition fees and 60% of
respondents are always given allowance more than
enough, 45% of respondents never receive other
funding sources for education from scholarships, 48%
of respondents' parents own property and own assets.
In addition, 39% of respondents' parents' income is
large, 60% of respondents' lectures never come from
scholarship, and 44% of respondents besides lectures
never help parents earn a living. Besides, 45% of
parents of respondents are good at doing business,
and 47% of respondent's parents do not rent out room
for respondents with complete facilities. Table 2
shows the economic capital effect of 14.7% on
children's educational achievement.
Table 2: Economic capital effect on educational
achievement.
R
R Square
Adjusted R
Square
Std. Error of the
Estimate
.383
a
.147
.139
7.034
The result of research for socio-cultural capital
showed that 43% of respondents have parents who
have an important position in the community, 42% of
parents respondents have good connections with
certain institutions or companies, and 37% of
respondents' parents have a high status (in the
company or area of expertise). In addition, 47% of
respondents never have parents with low education,
47% of parents are not religious leaders, 65% of
respondents' parents are always respected by the
surrounding community, and 52% of respondents
have parents who are fluent in the language. Besides,
48% of respondents' parents never have Intellectual
Property Rights (in their work or business), 38% of
respondents are sometimes respected by friends and
society because of their parents, and 47% large
respondents have a high prestige in the family
environment. Table 3 shows the influence of social
and cultural capital of 14.4% on children's
educational achievement.
Table 3: influence of social and cultural capital of 14.4% on
children's educational achievement.
R
R Square
Adjusted R
Square
Std. Error of the
Estimate
.379
a
.144
.137
7.045
Predictors: (Constant), Social Culture Capital.
ICSE 2017 - 2nd International Conference on Sociology Education
546

Based on the results of the research for the
educational achievement of children, the findings
showed that as much as 54% of respondents have a
cum laude (GPA), 69% of respondents never repeat
the course, 75% of respondents never have problem
with lecturers, 68% of respondents are always active
in organization, and 41% of respondents sometimes
participate in various championships or competitions.
Besides, 39% of respondents hardly ever win
championships or competitions, 38% of respondents
are always active in external campus organizations,
51% of respondents are always active during
discussions, 82% of respondents graduated from high
school or S1 on time and 40% of respondents are the
best graduates in high school / S1.
Recapitulation of four empirical indicators of
economic capital indicate that (1) permanent
employment and high salary of respondent parents
were 44%; (2) 52% of respondents did not receive
scholarships for tuition fees; (3) ownership of
property and assets of parents of respondents obtained
47%; (4) giving money and school facilities to 64%
respondents. For three empirical indicators of cultural
capital available to parents, it is found that (1) 49% of
parents' high education respondents good, (2)
obtained by 50% of other people's appreciation of
respondents' parents and (3) 36% of respondents who
have positions and connections. For two categories of
educational achievement, the study found that (1)
62% of respondents have good academic
achievement; (2) 52% of respondents have good non-
academic achievement. Table 4 shows that there is an
economic, social and cultural capital effect of 18% on
children's educational achievement.
Table 4: The economic, social and cultural capital effect on
children's educational achievement.
R
R Square
Adjusted R
Square
Std. Error of the
Estimate
.424
a
.180
.166
6.925
Predictors: (Constant), Social Culture Capital, Economic
Capital.
Based on the sudy, it is found that the economic
and social capital of parents gave an 18% effect on
children's educational achievement. However, we
found that children whose parents have a lot of
cultural capital tend to be more accomplished from
various fields. This finding is in contrast to research
conducted by Møllegaard and Jæger (2015) who
found that economic capital had no effect due to free
education in Denmark. In line with previous research,
some support for social class differences in
educational outcomes in Denmark has been limited to
the extent to which different economic resources of
parents (eg, Davies, Heinesen, and Holm, 2002; Jöger
and Holm, 2007).
4 CONCLUSIONS
We note that due to data limitations, our empirical
representation for parental cultural capital is crude,
and future research should identify which specific
aspects of parental cultural capital (cultural
knowledge, behavior, expectations, etc.) shape the
cultural environment in the large families and shape
the achievement of child education. Future research
should also analyze how social economic capital
differs and culture which may differ from one
individual to another in larger scopes (aunts / uncles
and nephews) in contributing to educational
achievements in large families.
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