Family cultural capital and academic self-efficacy among Chinese high school students: The chain mediating roles of core self-evaluations and career readiness

BACKGROUND: Family cultural capital has been increasingly recognized as a critical contextual resource associated with students' academic development. However, little is known about the psychological and future-oriented developmental pathways through which family cultural capital is associated with academic self-efficacy in the competitive context of Chinese high school education. Drawing on social cognitive theory, this study examines whether core self-evaluation and career readiness function as sequential mediators linking family cultural capital to academic self-efficacy. METHODS: A questionnaire survey was administered to 1465 first-year high school students in China. Path analysis was employed to test a chain mediation model in which core self-evaluation and career readiness were specified as sequential mediators between family cultural capital and academic self-efficacy. RESULTS: Family cultural capital was positively associated with students' academic self-efficacy. Both core self-evaluation and career readiness independently mediated this relationship, and a significant chain mediation effect was observed from family cultural capital to academic self-efficacy via core self-evaluation and subsequent career readiness. CONCLUSION: This study provides evidence consistent with a theoretically informed psychological-developmental pathway linking family background with academic self-efficacy, suggesting that family cultural capital is associated with students' academic confidence both directly and indirectly through more positive self-evaluations and greater future-oriented career readiness. The observed pattern complements social cognitive perspectives and points to the value of supporting students' core self-evaluations and career readiness-particularly among those from culturally disadvantaged families-as part of broader efforts to strengthen academic confidence and promote equitable educational development.