Parental intent for children to study abroad: the role of educational aspiration and children’s characteristics

Abstract

Despite China being a major source country of international students, factors associated with Chinese parents’ intent for children to study abroad remains under-investigated. Inspired by a Bourdieusian framework, this study examined whether parental desire for children’s international education can be delineated by family background, while investigating the role of parental educational aspiration and children’s characteristics. A national sample of 4,348 from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) was adopted. Findings suggest that better family background is significantly associated with parental intent. The parents’ educational aspiration mediates this association, and parents’ perceptions of their children’s characteristics further moderate the relationship between educational aspiration and parental intent. This study sheds light on how the internationalisation of education is utilised by parents as a strategy to avoid potential failure in the domestic educational system and to reproduce social and educational privileges, which may entrench the reproduction of inequality in the long term.