TY - RPRT
T1 - Cultural Capital (CA)
T2 - Zusammenstellung sozialwissenschaftlicher Items und Skalen (ZIS)
AU - Sieben, S
AU - Lechner, C. M.
DO - https://zis.gesis.org/DoiId/zis289_exz
UR - 10.6102/zis289_exz
AB - Cultural capital is
frequently measured via the number of books in a respondent's household.
Despite this measures widespread use, its quality remains largely unclear. To
remedy this, we conducted a comprehensive assessment of the measurement
properties of two items measuring past and present objectified cultural capital
via the number of books in the household of the respondent’s family of origin
and the respondent’s current household, respectively. For this purpose, we used
data (N = 3260) from the Programme for the International Assessment
of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) 2012 survey in Germany and the 2015 wave of a
follow-up study (PIAAC-L). We analyzed the two items’ distributions (total
sample and separately by age-group), test-retest reliability over 3 years (for
past cultural capital only), and their convergent and divergent validity (i.e.,
correlations with socioeconomic status, literacy and numeracy skills, and
cultural and literary activities).
Our analyses (1) reveal that
past and present objectified cultural capital are substantially but not
perfectly related (ρ = .52), which may reflect
intergenerational transmission; (2) demonstrate that the item measuring past
objectified cultural capital shows high test-retest reliability over three
years (ρ = .74); and (3) attest to both the convergent and divergent
reliability of both items, as indicated by systematic yet only small to
medium-sized correlations with socioeconomic status, literacy and numeracy
skills, and cultural and literary activities. At the same time, our analyses
(4) underscore that cultural capital is not a uniform construct, highlighting
that the number of books captures a specific aspect of the concept (i.e.,
objectified cultural capital). Our findings can serve as a benchmark for future
research on cultural capital. 


PY - 2020
PB - ZIS - GESIS Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences
LA - en
SN - http://zis.gesis.org/