This study examines the impact of cultural capital (measured by participation in high-brow cultural
activities) on educational outcomes of academic high school seniors' educational outcomes in South
Korea. Using representative data from Korean Education and Employment Panel(KEEP), the authors
found that parental education and family income have a significant effect on parents' and children's
cultural capital. Parents' cultural capital, however, has a curvilinear relationship with children's cultural
capital, suggesting that South Korea students do not enjoy high-brow culture as frequently as their
parents do. This curvilinear relationship was also found between children's cultural capital and
academic achievement, indicating that children's participation in high-brow cultural activities has
diminishing returns for academic achievement. These findings may be explained by the South Korean
education system where the majority of South Korea students, especially, those academic high school
seniors, spend most of their waking hours for the university entrance examinations (e.g., particularly
by participating in various types of private tutoring, often referred to as shadow education). Students'
frequent participation in high-brow culture may cost time which otherwise could have been devoted
to study. As a result, students who spend too much of their time participating in high-brow culture
may be academically disadvantaged. Meanwhile, results show that with respect to Mathematics and
English achievement, those children with more educated parents benefit more from cultural capital
than those children with less educated parents do, supporting Bourdieu's cultural reproduction view.
Finally, results show that both parents' and children's cultural capital do not have a significant effect
on transition to a 4 year and selective college.