Inequality of Extra-curricular Activity Participation among College Students in China

• In Event: 598 - Section on Asia and Asian America Roundtable Session.
  In Refereed Roundtable: Section on Asia and Asian America Roundtables. Table 01. Health and Educational Outcomes

Abstract

This paper examines the impacts of family and school on extra-curricular activity participation of college students in China. Extra-curricular activity participation constitutes an important part of college experiences. It gains increasing importance in the era of mass education. As college degree is losing its signaling function in the labor market, extra-curricular activities becomes “soft credentials” to demonstrate employability and strategic potential for transition to the labor market. Participation in extra-curricular activities, however, involve time, money, and cultural and social know-knows. Extra-curricular activity participation may also subject to the educational ethos, resources, and organization of the educational institution. Thus opportunities for extra-curricular activity participation may not be equally available to students from different family backgrounds and schools. In other words, participation in extra-curricular activities reflects a qualitative form of educational inequality. Analyses are based on data from a panel study of high school students randomly drawn from urban Nanjing in 2010. The analytic sample for the present paper consists of 667 college students who were studying in China in 2013. Inconsistent with previous research, the family influence on activity participation is minimal. Rather, participation tends to vary by types of educational institutions. Students of key universities are more actively involved in extra-curricular activities than students of non-key institutions. Further analyses indicate that students from privileged family origins may enjoy cumulative advantages in the educational process. Socio-economically advantaged parents are able to enrich their children’s extra-curricular experiences at college by sending them first, to prestigious high schools and then, to key universities.

Authors

• Gina Lai, Hong Kong Baptist University

• Odalia Ho Wong, Hong Kong Baptist University

• Danching Ruan, Hong Kong Baptist University