Effects of family social capital on Hong Kong students' literacy

Effects of family social capital on Hong Kong students' literacy

• Lam, Terence Yuk Ping

2006

• A Human Growth & Development
  • AF Family & Development, Family Relationship, Reproduction & Child Rearing, Family Education, Parental Involvement

Educational Sociology

• Hong Kong

• 1997.7 onwards

• Secondary Education

Data for this study was collected from the Program for International Student Assessment in Hong Kong (HK-PISA), which was conducted in 2002. A total of 4405 fifteen-year-old students from 140 Hong Kong secondary schools completed the student assessment. A total of 4336 parents also completed the parent questionnaires. These questionnaires was used to provide information about family social capital and family background.
In conclusion, the results of this research support Coleman's thesis of social capital in the creation of human capital. It also underscores the importance of bridging social capital in student's learning. Finally, the given recommendations based on the results of this research may be useful for policy makers, educators and parents in assisting students to improve their learning and develop their potential fully.
The CFA results suggest that the applicability and validity of the indices related to the three types of capital created by OECD is fair, and therefore the local social context should be taken into consideration when modifying these indices for adoption in the research. The results of the HLM analysis demonstrate that most measures of family social capital are consistently associated with students' literacy. They also show that effects of the process attribute of social capital on student's achievement are stronger than that of the structural attribute. Among the social capital variables used at the individual-student level, students score higher if their parents communicate (both social and culturally) with them more and also if their parents expect their child to attend university. Among the social capital variables used at the school level, the school mean parental network has a stronger positive contextual effect on students' achievement. As for the variables of physical and cultural capital, only part of them has a significant effect on student's achievement, and the effect is weaker than that of family social capital.
The Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) of the LISREL software is used to versify the indices related to social capital, physical capital and cultural capital created by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to explore the applicability and validity of adopting these indices in empirical research in Hong Kong. Then, variables constructed based on the Hong Kong data are employed to study the effects of family social capital on students' literacy by using Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM).
The present study aims at investigating the effects of family social capital on Hong Kong students' literacy. The research only focuses on effects of family social capital on student's achievement. Further investigations on effects of school social capital on student's learning are recommended. Further investigations on effects of social capital on other aspects of learning outcomes, such as student's self-concept, are also recommended.

EdD

Chinese University of Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-11, Section: A, page: 4140

• English

Dissertation Theses

• 9780542963742

https://bibliography.lib.eduhk.hk/en/bibs/217b3466

2010-12-16