Internal Migration: Understanding Parent–Child Differences in Educational Expectations

Although educational expectations of parents and children are associated with educational investments and attainment, children and parent expectations do not always align. Previous research on parent–child discrepancies in educational expectations focuses heavily on the consequences of the discrepancies but has less often considered factors that lead to different expectations on the part of parents and children. This paper asks whether children’s internal migration from rural areas in China is associated with greater discrepancies in educational expectations between parents and their children when compared to non-migrant rural-origin youth. Our analyses rely on the China Educational Panel (CEPS) in 2013 and 2014 and consider the potential for familial relationships and extra-familial social capital to act as mediators between children’s migration and parent–child educational expectation discrepancies. We found that rural-to-urban migrant adolescents are more likely to hold high and aligned educational expectations. Rural-to-urban migrant youth also report stronger intra-familial relationships but weaker access to extra-familial social capital when compared to rural non-migrant youth. Yet, multinomial logistic regression and subsequent analyses indicate that only intra-familial relationships serve as a mediator between children’s migration status and parent–child discrepancies in educational expectations.