Cultural activities and educational progress: Evidence from Russian longitudinal data

This study analyses the possible influence of cultural activities such as visits to theatres, museums, exhibitions, zoos, circuses, excursions, trips and campaigns on educational progress. It uses longitudinal data taken from the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey, which is a unique nationally representative survey; the sample consists of schoolchildren aged six to14. The methodology makes use of the panel data structure and logit regressions to effectively control for time-invariant determinants of educational achievements, and the method directly controls for socioeconomic status, students’ health, public school, region, age and gender. Consequently, this study accurately measured the isolated effect of cultural activities. The findings suggest that these cultural activities correlated positively with educational progress, as the cultural capital theory predicts. However, participation in these activities without parents did not show significant effects. Therefore, parental participation seems necessary to observe a positive association between cultural activities and educational progress, in accordance with the social capital theory.