Advantages Accumulation or Balanced Compensation? The Cross-Level Interaction Effect of Academic Achievements among Students from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, China 

Ding Hang

Nanjing University, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province ，210000；

Abstract：This study aims to explore the cross-level interaction effect of school socioeconomic composition on the relationship between individual socioeconomic status (SES) and academic achievement, and to verify whether high-SES school environments produce an advantage accumulation (Matthew Effect) or an equilibrium compensation effect. Based on the PISA 2022 data of 15,765 students from 391 schools in Hong Kong region, Macao region and Taipei, this paper adopts the Hierarchical Linear Model (HLM) for empirical analysis. The results show that: (1) Individual SES significantly and positively predicts students’ mathematical literacy; (2) School mean SES has a strong positive contextual effect on academic achievement, and its explanatory power is far higher than that of individual SES; (3) The cross-level interaction between individual SES and school mean SES is significantly positive, which strongly supports the Matthew Effect hypothesis—high-SES school environments amplify the advantages of individual family background and intensify internal academic inequality, rather than playing a compensatory role for disadvantaged students. It is concluded that high-quality schools aggravate the intergenerational transmission of social classes while improving the overall academic level. Educational policies should not only balance inter-school resources but also optimize the fairness of on-campus processes, and establish targeted support mechanisms for students from low-SES families to curb the Matthew Effect in education.

Keywords: Advantage Accumulation; Matthew Effect; Socioeconomic Status (SES); Cross-Level Interaction; Academic Achievement

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