Effect of extracurricular tutoring on adolescent students' cognitive ability: A Propensity Score Matching Analysis

Abstract

Abstract The number of adolescent students participating in extracurricular tutoring has increased significantly over the past few years. However, the impact of extracurricular tutoring on the cognitive development of adolescents remains unclear. This study used a nationwide dataset from the 2018 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) to assess the effect of extracurricular tutoring on the cognitive development of adolescent students. A total of 2567 valid respondents were included to empirically examine the relationship between adolescent students' participation in extracurricular tutoring and their cognitive development. First, we build a binary logistic regression model with tutoring as the dependent variable and 19 individual, family, and school factors as covariates. Second, we performed a propensity score-matched analysis using the confounding variables identified in the first step to control for potential bias. The study results showed that participating in extracurricular tutoring can significantly improve the cognitive ability of adolescents.