ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Language, Culture and Diversity
A cross-country comparison of family effect upon students' reading literacy based on social capital theory
Provisionally accepted
Hongqiang Liu1*
Jan Van Damme2- 1Henan University of Technology, Zhengzhou, China
- 2Centre for Educational Effectiveness and Evaluation, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
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Prior studies examining social capital and academic achievement have focused on individual countries, limiting cross-cultural generalizability. Additionally, inconsistent measurement of social capital hinders robust conclusions about its effects on student achievement. To add these problems, this study evaluates family-based social capital (FSC) within diverse cultural contexts using a two-stage analytical framework combining country-specific two-level hierarchical linear modelling (HLM) with meta-analyses and cultural dimension analysis, based on PISA2009 data for 14 economies, 3,420 schools and 101,370 students. Four HLM models assessed contributions of demographic characteristics and family social capital (family structure, siblings, early parental support, current parental involvement) to reading literacy. Cross-country comparisons employed Snijders and Bosker's pseudo-R2, intra-class correlations, and Hedges' Q tests. Correlation and regression analyses examined relationships between gross explanatory power of FSC and Hofstede's cultural dimensions. Results reveal family social capital significantly predicts reading achievement beyond demographic factors, with net explanatory power varying from 1% (Macao) to 7.8% (Hungary). Early parental support and nuclear families show positive associations, while sibling number exhibits negative effects, and effects specific to each country vary significantly. Hedges' Q tests confirm significant cross-national heterogeneity for each aspect of family-based social capital. Critically, Hofstede's Indulgence versus Restraint dimension substantially accounts for cross-national variation in FSC's explanatory power (R² = 0.763). Findings demonstrate that family social capital's impact is systematically moderated by cultural orientation, challenging universalist assumptions in Coleman's framework and highlighting the necessity for culturally informed educational theories and context-specific policies.
Keywords: cross-cultural comparison, Cultural dimensions, Family social capital, Hierarchical linear modelling, Meta-analysis
Received: 27 Aug 2024; Accepted: 07 Jan 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Liu and Van Damme. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Hongqiang Liu
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