Research On Family Education Expenditure,Parents' Educational Expectations And The Development Of The Children's Cognitive Ability

Family education expenditure reflects parents' support for children's education,while parental education expectancy reflects parents' subjective expectation for children's education.From the perspective of family human capital,based on the decision-making theory of family education expenditure,the new human capital theory and Rosenthal effect,this paper uses the data of China Education Tracking Survey(CEPS)in the academic year 2014-2015 to study school education.The two aspects of education expenditure and extra-curricular counseling expenditure test the direct impact of family education expenditure on children's cognitive ability,and then explore the moderating effect of parents' educational expenditure on children's cognitive ability development.The results show that:(1)The increase of school expenditure and extra-curricular counseling expenditure contributes to the development of children's cognitive ability.For every 1% increase in family school expenditure,the average increase in children's cognitive ability is 2.18%,while for every 1% increase in family extra-curricular education expenditure,the average increase in cognitive ability is 0.712%.(2)The coefficient and significance of the influence of parents' educational expectations on children's cognitive development are relatively stable.The improvement of parents' educational expectations can significantly promote children's cognitive development.(3)The interaction between family education expenditure and extra-curricular counseling expenditure and parents' educational expectations reached a significant level of 5%.This indicates that parents' educational expectations have a moderating effect on the development of children's cognitive ability.With the improvement of parents' expectations,the positive effect of family education expenditure on children's cognitive development is becoming more and more obvious.(4)The results of heterogeneity analysis show that the influence of family education expenditure and parents' expectation on children's cognitive ability is more obvious in girls,only children,towns and parents' samples with high educational background,but the absolute coefficients of school expenditure in rural and parents' samples with low educational background are larger than those in urban areas and parents' samples with high educational background,which shows that family education expenditure affects disadvantaged families' children.The marginal utility of female cognitive ability is greater.Based on the above findings,this paper proposes that families should further optimize family education expenditure;parents should establish a correct outlook on education and uphold appropriate expectations for children's education;schools should adhere to quality education,focusing on the cultivation of students' cognitive ability;and the government should optimize the allocation of educational resources to promote quality education equity.The research on family education expenditure,parents' educational expectation and children's cognitive ability improvement is the application and expansion of new human capital theory,family education expenditure decision theory and educational psychology.At the same time,the research conclusion supports the existence of Rosenthal effect,and has reference significance on how to optimize family education expenditure,realize the accumulation of family human capital and improve children's cognitive ability.