Cultural Capital and Its Impact on Academic Achievement: Sustainable Development of Chinese High School Students
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Dear authors,
First of all, I am glad to have the opportunity to read the article entitled “Cultural Capital and Its Impact on Academic Achievement: Sustainable Development of Chinese High School Students”, that I have read with great interest.
I would like to say that the topic of this paper is relevant, but the paper has some points that need the authors attention as below
1) in the abstract mention the data analysis techniques that were employed in your study
2) briefly define cultural capital at the first time you mention the term
3) the problem statement is good presents
4) the literature review has a good critical thinking approach and is adequate
5) in the literature review part, its advisable to state the research hypotheses and draw the research framework
6) in table 4 there are some data that should be reviewed such as : beta wight of 0.053, 0.064, 0.085, -0.064 cannot be significant
7) similarly, coefficient t-value of 1.391, 0.771, -1.044 can not have a significate p value. Please give reference or revise with justification. On the hand, coefficient t-value of -4.717 should have a significant p value which is not the case in your study. Please justify.
8) Please revise table 5 and 6 as different values are not statistically logic as in table 4
3) please give more justification on the results generalization issue
Author Response
Authors’ Replies to Reviewer I
Authors’ Reply
Thank you for reading and reviewing of our work. Thank you very much for your kind advice. According to your suggestion, we checked the research content, design, data and results, and our replies are as follows.
1) in the abstract mention the data analysis techniques that were employed in your study
Authors’ Reply
Based on your suggestion, we have added a technical description of data analysis to the abstract.
2) briefly define cultural capital at the first time you mention the term
Authors’ Reply:
According to your suggestion, when we first mentioned cultural capital, we added a brief definition of the concept.
3) the problem statement is well presented
Authors’ Reply
Thank you for your affirmation.
4) the literature review has a good critical thinking approach and is adequate
Authors’ Reply
Thank you for your recognition.
5) in the literature review part, it’s advisable to state the research hypotheses and draw the research framework
Authors’ Reply
Thank you for your suggestion. We firmly believe that adding explanations of research hypotheses will make the research clearer and more logical. Due to space limitation, we did not draw a framework.
6) in table 4 there are some data that should be reviewed such as : beta wight of 0.053, 0.064, 0.085, -0.064 cannot be significant
7) similarly, coefficient t-value of 1.391, 0.771, -1.044 cannot have a significate p value. Please give reference or revise with justification. On the hand, coefficient t-value of -4.717 should have a significant p value which is not the case in your study. Please justify.
8) Please revise table 5 and 6 as different values are not statistically logic as in table 4
Authors’ Reply
Dear professor. We attach great importance to your suggestion, and in response to your questions of (6) ,(7) and (8), we have conducted a careful review and come to the following conclusions.
First, we found that the data in Table 4, Table 5 and Table 6 are consistent with the data output from the software after several practical operations using SPSS software.
Second, the data in each box on the right side of Tables 4, 5, and 6 in our paper represent the unstandardized coefficients, standardized coefficients (beta weights), and statistical significance (p values) in that order. Please see the notes below Table 4. For example, 0.053, 0.064, 0.085, and -0.064 in Table 4 are standardized coefficients. 1.391, 0.771, -1.044, and -4.717 are unstandardized coefficients, not t-values.
Third, we have added statistical significance (p values) below the unstandardized coefficients in Table 4 ,5 and 6 for the reader's understanding. Please check it on table 4, table 5 and table 6.
Moreover, the data ” unstandardized coefficients, standardized coefficients (beta weights), and statistical significance (p values)” in these three tables are presented identically.
3) please give more justification on the results generalization issue
Authors’ Reply
According to your suggestion, we have added more explanation to the presentation of the study results. Please see the attachment of our updated article.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Dear authors,
I find your research very well structured, theoretically and empirically insightful.
There are minor comments regarding the improvement of the manuscript:
1. line 28 - word goal (before punctuation): should it be in plural form?
2. line 33-34 - there should be written UN Sustainable Development Goals, word sustainable is omitted.
3. line 63 - after Bourdieu I find the citation/reference needed; the same is with DiMaggion (reference missing in line 69, after the mentioning of this author).
3. In line 242 you have stated: " 9 independent variables were retained for regression analysis". In the presented results for each research question max. 8 independent variables have been discussed and their results elaborated. " This needs to be checked and corrected, if needed.
4. The lines 34-37:
Equal education is an important component of the SDGs, but little is known about how to achieve sustainable equality goals - the wording in yellow needs correction to be meaningful, for example: equal education opportunities for sustainable development (?). This issues are also later discussed in the Conclusion section, so I find it very important to be precisely clarified in the Introduction section.
Cultural capital is generally considered to be an important reference for equality in education, and is crucial for achieving sustainable development in education [5].- I find the theoretical background needs more discussion (but no more than one or two sentences) that support the statement in yellow.
Author Response
Authors’ Replies to Reviewer II
Authors’ Reply
Thank you for your review of our article, for your recognition of our research, and for your sincere suggestions. The following is our response based on your suggestions.
- line 28 - word goal (before punctuation): should it be in plural form?
Authors’ Reply
Thank you for your kind advice, it should be in plural form, we have corrected it on the article.
- line 33-34 - there should be written UN Sustainable Development Goals, word sustainable is omitted.
Authors’ Reply
Thank you for your correction, according to your suggestion, we have added this word “sustainable”.
- line 63 - after Bourdieu I find the citation/reference needed; the same is with DiMaggion (reference missing in line 69, after the mentioning of this author).
Authors’ Reply
According to your suggestion, we have added the relevant references in these two places.
- In line 242 you have stated: " 9 independent variables were retained for regression analysis". In the presented results for each research question max. 8 independent variables have been discussed and their results elaborated. " This needs to be checked and corrected, if needed.
Authors’ Reply
According to your suggestion, we have deleted the number “9” to avoid inconsistency with the discussion of the following research results. The number of independent variables is discussed according to the analysis of the study, so the number of independent variables is not emphasized.
- The lines 34-37:
Equal education is an important component of the SDGs, but little is known about how to achieve sustainable equality goals - the wording in yellow needs correction to be meaningful, for example: equal education opportunities for sustainable development (?). This issues are also later discussed in the Conclusion section, so I find it very important to be precisely clarified in the Introduction section.
Authors’ Reply
To make the wording in yellow more meaningful, we have changed this part into the following sentence:
Equal education is an important component of the SDGs, but little is known about how to achieve equal education opportunities for sustainable development.
Cultural capital is generally considered to be an important reference for equality in education, and is crucial for achieving sustainable development in education [5].- I find the theoretical background needs more discussion (but no more than one or two sentences) that support the statement in yellow.
Authors’ Reply
Thank you for your sincere advice, we have added one more sentence to support this statement. Please see the “Track Change” version of the updated article.
Family cultural capital is an effective way for individuals to achieve advancement and, more importantly, to promote the academic achievement of their children.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
I can accept the paper in its current form
best wishes
