The Influence of Family Background, School Climate, and Individual Efforts on Academic Achievement: A Perspective of Inequality of Opportunity

Based on Roemer’s theory of inequality of opportunity, this study constructs a multi-dimensional analytical framework consisting of family background, school climate, and individual efforts to explore the influence mechanism and contribution of these three factors on academic performance. By using linear regression models and Shapley value decomposition methods, the study analyzes the questionnaire data of 3,011 Chinese college students. The teacher-student relationship in the school climate has the highest contribution (29.12%). The total contribution of external environmental factors composed of family and school exceeds 70%, indicating that the phenomenon of opportunity inequality in academic performance is significant; the moderation analysis indicates that individual effort strengthens the positive effects of family background ( t = 2.094, p < .05) and school climate ( t = 3.666, p < .01) on academic performance. Additionally, the heterogeneity analysis reveals differences across urban-rural areas, gender, and school levels. The research suggests that educational equity requires joint actions from society, schools, and other key stakeholders to compensate for and/or lessen the negative effects of adverse environments, and at the same time, reward and encourage student academic performance.