Do Homeschooled Students Lack Opportunities to Acquire Cultural Capital? Evidence from a Nationally Representative Survey of American Households
Hamlin D · 2019
grade Dlongitudinalindependentunreplicated
Sample
552 home-schooling respondents in the National Household Education Survey 2016
Population
Nationally representative US households
Design
Explicitly descriptive; the author states the patterns are not causal. Activity participation is parent-reported.
Key findings
Two findings that point in opposite directions and are both worth carrying. Formal instruction in music, arts, literature or foreign language is absent in nearly 40% of home-schooling households. Yet relative to public-school families, home-schooling families report statistically higher participation in cultural and family activities — museums, libraries, events, family outings.
Genetic confound
High; participation in cultural activities is a parental behaviour, and the families being compared differ on every trait that predicts it.
Replication notes
Unreplicated on other NHES waves; the companion analysis (Cheng & Hamlin 2022) pools three waves for arrangements rather than for these outcomes.
Effects
| Outcome | Metric | Value | Measure | Timing | Vs | Horizon | Class |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Households with no formal instruction in music, arts, literature or foreign language | percentage of home-schooling households | nearly 40% | self-report | 2016 cross-section | none | not-applicable | domain-skill |
| Participation in cultural and family activities, home-school vs public-school families | direction of difference | significantly higher among home-schooling families | self-report | 2016 cross-section | active-alternative | not-applicable | non-cognitive |
Cited by
- Homeschool socialisation — the most-asked question, and the least answerable oneinsufficientconf: lowgc: high