Abstract:

It is well known that children's academic performances are affected by both their family backgrounds and contextual or structural factors such as the urban-rural difference and regional variation. This article evaluates the relative importance of family background versus structural factors in determining children's academic achievements across three different societies: China, the United States of America, and Germany, analyzing data from five large-scale, high-quality, and nationally representative data sets. The results reveal two main findings: (a) family socioeconomic status exerts much stronger positive effects on children's academic achievement in the USA and Germany than in China; and (b) structural factors (such as those measured by location and urban/rural residence) play much smaller roles in the USA and Germany than in China.

Key words: Academic achievement, family SES, structural factors