“Purchasing hope”: the consumption of children’s education in urban China

Children’s education has become an important part of urban family consumption, and the rapid expansion of private tutoring schools and supplemental lessons has constituted a big part of the children’s education market. Taking the perspective of family studies and using China Education Panel Survey (2013–2014) data, this paper explores the relationship between family structure, parenthood, and the consumption of children’s education. This research shows that family investment in children’s education exhibits dual characteristics of instrumental rationality and emotional expression; children from one-child families, living with both parents and receiving more attention and affection from their parents, have more educational opportunities outside of school; girls receive more advantage over boys. Meanwhile, social class differences in the consumption of children’s education are significant. Middle-class families have greater education expectation and will invest more in children’s education, displaying a significantly stratified preference in supplemental lessons. These findings illustrate the need to take a new look at family studies and consumption research regarding the issue of child education consumption in the future.