The interplay of family capital and learning engagement: Mediating mechanisms in undergraduates’ intentions to take the postgraduate entrance examination

Chen Xiaoman and Zhou Hongfang

PLOS ONE, 2026, vol. 21, issue 1, 1-18

Abstract: Background: The phenomenon of “postgraduate examination fever” has raised concerns about the factors influencing undergraduates’ decisions to pursue graduate education. By conducting a cross-sectional survey of 1,178 undergraduates from Double First Class and ordinary universities in China, this study examines how family capital and learning engagement jointly affect Chinese undergraduates’ intentions to take the national postgraduate entrance examination under theories of capital and student engagement. Methods: This study used a bootstrapped mediation analysis, two stage sampling, convenience sampling, and a binary logistic regression model to investigate the impact of these variables on the intention to pursue graduate education in order to ascertain whether learning engagement mediates the impact of family capital among undergraduates from both Double First Class and ordinary universities in China. Results: This study reveals that both family capital and learning engagement were significant predictors of students’ intention to pursue graduate studies (p

Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0339529

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0339529

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