Resource Delivery in Rural Families Involving Peidu—A Case Study Based on Peidu

Peidu (accompanying a child for study) is one of the outcomes of current unbalanced educational development in China. A field survey and a series of semi-structured interviews indicated that the resource delivery in rural families involving peidu mainly sources from four aspects: the spatial mobility of class pressure, the needs for the integration of family resources, the continuous increases in living costs, and the flexible feedback of educational expectations. The channel of resource delivery in rural families, namely peidu, displays characteristics including families’ choice of conformity behavior and the singleness of estimate standard; the lack of professional support, and the inadequacy of family-school interactions; the conflicts of behaviors and habits, and poor intergenerational interactions. Restricted by the choice of delivery channel and family circumstances, peidu in rural families shows the Matthew effect, which increases disparities within the rural class, and thus exerts a three-level influence. At the individual level, it has a positive influence upon individuals’ fulfilling their absolute mobility, but their relative mobility still faces various difficulties. Moreover, it means the relative deprivation of certain family members’ benefits to a certain extent; at the family level, disadvantaged families are exposed to the risk of further marginalization; and at the social level, the “theater effect” from peidu exacerbates the inequality between classes.