The influence of family socioeconomic status on physics achievement among Chinese high school students: the mediating roles of cultural capital and educational expectations

Equitable participation in STEM education remains difficult when students have unequal access to family educational resources, and these disparities may be especially consequential in physics because the subject requires sustained conceptual and mathematical engagement. Drawing on Bourdieu's cultural capital theory and Eccles' expectancy-value theory, this study examined whether cultural capital and parental educational expectations mediate the relationship between family SES and physics achievement among Chinese high school students. A convenience sample of 226 Grade 10-12 students was recruited from one public high school in Fujian Province, China. Confirmatory factor analysis, hierarchical regression, bootstrap mediation, and moderation analyses were conducted in Stata 17. The results showed that family SES positively associated with physics achievement. Cultural capital and parental educational expectations statistically mediated this relationship. The positive SES-achievement association was stronger among rural students than among urban students. By integrating a material-resource pathway with a motivational pathway in a subject-specific model, this study extends research on family background to physics education in a Chinese high school context.