The aim of the article was to address the relevance of cultural capital and
relative risk aversion theories for educational outcomes and aspirations of
upper secondary school students in Croatia, and to examine whether these
approaches are compatible in explaining educational inequalities. Linear and
logistic regressions were used to analyze data from 2106 students in their
last year of upper secondary school (16-18 years old). Both constructs,
cultural capital and relative risk aversion, had positive effects on school
performance, enrolment of gymnasium instead of vocational school and
aspirations for higher education. The analyses indicated that cultural
factors frequently associated with school performance should not be
separated from more direct status concerns shaping educational decisions.
Rather than seeing them as unrelated, these mechanisms may both be seen as
constitutive of students? educational dispositions.
School performance and completion of upper secondary school in the child welfare population in Norway