Reciprocal Relationships Among Parents' Expectations, Adolescents' Expectations, and Adolescents' Achievement: A Two-Wave Longitudinal Analysis of the NELS Data

• NCJ Number: 234345
• Journal: Journal of Youth and Adolescence Volume: 40 Issue: 4 Dated: April 2011 Pages: 479-489
• Author(s): Yanyan Zhang; Eileen Haddad; Bernadeth Torres; Chuansheng Chen
• Date Published: April 2011
• Length: 11 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study examined the relationships between parents' and student's expectations, and academic achievement.

Abstract

Previous research has consistently demonstrated the importance of parents' expectations and adolescents' expectations on adolescents' academic achievement. Less is known, however, about the reciprocal relationships among these constructs. To address this issue, the authors analyzed two waves of data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88) using longitudinal cross-lagged path models. The sample consisted of 14,376 students (51.1 percent females; 6.5 percent Asian, 11.1 percent Hispanic, 9.2 percent African-American, and 73.2 percent White). Results indicated that there was a reciprocal relationship between parents' expectations and adolescents' expectations (i.e., they had mutual influence on each other). Moreover, there was a reciprocal relationship between expectations (both parents' and adolescents') and adolescents' academic achievement. Multiple-group analyses of gender and ethnicity revealed that the effects of parents' expectations on students' expectations were stronger among males than among females. With respect to ethnic differences, the effects of adolescents' expectations were weakest on parents' expectations among African-Americans as compared to the other ethnic groups (i.e., Asian, Hispanic and White). Implications of these findings are discussed. (Published Abstract)